What Makes a Great Founder/VC Relationship Work?
VC in 33 Seconds
In this video, we explore the foundational value of integrity in the investor-entrepreneur relationship. Mike Peri reflects on the mutual trust required in venture partnerships, emphasizing the responsibility to both investors and founders. Mike highlights the importance of alignment, shared vision, and the ability to challenge one another in a way that drives growth on both sides.
VC in 33: What Makes a Great Founder/VC Relationship Work?
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Mike Peri shares his perspective on why integrity is essential in venture partnerships. He underscores the mutual trust between investors and entrepreneurs, highlighting the importance of finding alignment, shared thinking, and a willingness to push each other toward growth. For Peri, integrity is the core that makes these relationships effective and enduring.
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Mike Peri
Managing Partner — HealthTech Fund, Purple Arch VenturesMike, an accomplished venture capitalist and operator with over a decade of industry experience, brings a wealth of expertise to Alumni Ventures. Before joining AV as a Partner, he held a Lead Director role at CVS Health Ventures, where he focused on investments in early and growth-stage digital health companies and played a key role in shaping the firm's portfolio management strategy. Prior to this, Mike served as a Partner at Distributed Ventures, an early-stage fund with a strong thematic emphasis on digital health, insuretech, and fintech sectors. His journey in the industry began with leadership in product and analytics at Yaro Health, a venture-incubated company that achieved a successful acquisition. Throughout his career, Mike has assumed pivotal roles in strategy, early-stage startups, and data science, shaping his comprehensive understanding of the venture landscape. Mike holds a Masters of Science in Applied Data Science from the University of Chicago, along with graduate and undergraduate degrees from DePaul University and the University of Iowa, respectively.
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You can find the full transcript below:
Mike Peri:
It’s integrity. We are partnering with people to solve problems, and it’s a relationship that’s very trusted us to the entrepreneur. Obviously, we’re giving them money and we have a fiduciary responsibility to our investors. And at the same time, the entrepreneur is also trying to figure out, is this the right capital for me? Do they think on the same level I do? Do we think there’ll be alignment? And we could challenge each other in a way that propels both of us? And I think that the core underpinning in that is just integrity.
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