Sara Deshpande, Author at Maven Ventures

10 Consumer Trends That Will Spark Innovation In 2020

January 16, 2020 No Comments

As we head into a new year and a new decade, the pace of innovation and technology adoption has never been higher. Consumer attitudes and interests are changing just as rapidly. Here are ten areas where consumer preferences are shifting and evolving, based on reviewing more than a thousand business

Maven Ventures Closes $65M Fund III to Keep Predicting and Funding Billion-Dollar Tech Startups

September 25, 2019 No Comments

Today, we’re incredibly excited to announce that we’ve closed Maven Ventures Fund III, an oversubscribed $65M seed-stage venture fund to continue investing in big consumer trends. Read more about our plans for Fund III in today‘s article from Forbes: “Why One Of Zoom’s and Cruise’s First Venture Capital Backers Is Defying

Four Levers to Optimize your Funding Round

February 6, 2019 No Comments

Too many founders optimize their fundraising based on a single metric: valuation. Of course, I understand where this comes from, and the desire to minimize dilution. As early-stage investors, we also care about the dilutive effects of follow-on rounds, both for us and the founders. A key lesson we’ve learned

Maven Investment Themes: Where We’re Putting our Money Now

December 14, 2017 No Comments

Our investment thesis at Maven is to identify emerging consumer trends and invest in software technology that transforms millions of lives. Here are some of the areas we’re exploring right how. If you’re starting an early-stage company related to one of these themes, with a committed, technical team and a

Required Reading for Aspiring VCs

April 27, 2017 No Comments

As the level of interest in starting and joining early-stage tech companies grows, so does interest in funding them. Usually once a week or so, I’ll hear from a new college grad, fresh MBA, or career soul-searcher who is eager to break into the Venture Capital industry. I’ve gathered the

What’s the next billion dollar digital health idea?

February 14, 2017 No Comments

I’ve spent the last year and a half meeting healthcare startup founders. About six months ago, I wrote about several challenges in consumer healthcare and why I hadn’t invested yet. Since then, I made one investment (which I’ll be excited to share more about soon!) and our team at Maven has continued

Three Reasons I Haven’t Invested in Consumer Health — Yet

August 25, 2016 No Comments

It’s an exciting time to be an investor in consumer healthcare companies. Before becoming a VC, I was a management consultant focused on healthcare strategy at Deloitte Consulting. During the passing of the Affordable Care Act, I worked with clients across the healthcare industry– providers, payers, and pharmacies– to build

How We Choose Startup Founders

December 23, 2015 3 Comments

This guest post was written by Sara Thomas, Principal at Maven Ventures. Follow Sara on Twitter @saraannet. Earlier this month, we held our second annual Maven Ventures Holiday Party, and it was great to welcome the holiday season with our Maven community — the Maven team, founders, limited partners, mentors,

Why We Invested in Eden

November 17, 2015 No Comments

This guest post was written by Sara Thomas, Principal at Maven Ventures. Follow Sara on Twitter @saraannet. Why are printers such a pain? When I moved into a new apartment in San Francisco and set up my home office, I bought a new wireless printer. My internet connection didn’t boost

Author: Sara Deshpande