When Urvashi Barooah applied to MBA programs in 2015, she focused her applications round her dream of becoming a enterprise capitalist. She got rejected from every school, and was told she was being unrealistic about her prospects within the enterprise industry, but she didn’t let that deter her.
Now, eight years later, Barooah, 33, is getting promoted to partner at Redpoint. She joined the firm as an associate 4 years ago, and has served as a principal since late 2021. Silicon Valley-based Redpoint is currently investing out of it’s $650 million ninth fund. Barooah is now one among the firm’s three partners focused on early stage.
Barooah told TechCrunch that while in some ways those business schools were right to inform her she was being unrealistic about her goals. She knew it might be hard to interrupt into the relatively small industry with no network or contacts in Silicon Valley, but she’s glad she didn’t take heed to them.
“I wasn’t deterred, however it did feel type of not possible at one point,” Barooah said. “I used to be so faraway from it. I didn’t know the truth on the bottom. I just knew what people wrote about within the papers.”
Barooah grew up distant from Silicon Valley in Guwahati, a small city, by India’s standards, sandwiched between Bhutan and Bangladesh. Each her parents ran their very own businesses. Her dad ran a chemical business, while her mom designed and sold furniture.
“My parents, growing up, asked me, ‘what type of business do you ought to start?’ That’s what essentially the most successful people in India did,” she said. “They all the time encouraged me to forge my very own path and begin my very own company. I thought of that for a very long time but there was nothing that excited me. If there was no concept that I used to be obsessed with, the subsequent smartest thing I could do was work with founders.”
In 2017, Barooah applied to US business schools again after working as a consultant and had higher luck. She landed a spot at Wharton and said she catered all of her classes and additional cirriculars around learning all the pieces she could concerning the enterprise industry. She began talking to entrepreneurs, developing an investment thesis and cold calling VCs to pitch it.
After an estimated 50 cold calls, she landed an internship at Recent York-based Primary Enterprise Partners in 2019. She got one other at Redpoint shortly after and was capable of convert that right into a full-time role and has been there ever since.
While growing up with entrepreneur parents didn’t introduce Barooah to enterprise capital, she thinks her upbringing makes her a greater VC. She said seeing their day-to-day triumphs and failures helped show her just how hard it’s to run a business and how one can roll with the punches when things do go unsuitable.
“They all the time fought against the percentages and did what was mandatory to maintain their business going,” Barooah said. “[They taught me] this concept that you will have to maintain moving forward despite all odds and that it was purported to be hard. If one among my firms has a set back, I do know that it’s just par for the course and something that will be overcome.”
Barooah’s portfolio includes Dune Analytics, an ethereum-focused platform for making on-chain data accessible, Offchain Labs, a startup that helps firms scale with ethereum, and The Rounds, a delivery service focused on sustainability, amongst others. She has two latest investments which have yet to be announced where she’ll be taking board seats too.
These first few years as an investor have taught her that the very best VCs are flexible and willing to follow where the market is telling them to go. She spent her first few years backing blockchain and crypto firms, but now she’s spending most of her time on vertical SaaS startups utilizing AI.
Barooah said she’s excited to maintain expanding her portfolio and appears forward to this latest role as partner and being their for the founders after they need assistance.
“I began my journey in enterprise 4 years ago and knew nothing,” Barooah said. ” Over these 4 years, I’ve shaped my judgment on what a very good company is. It’s not something I even have perfected by any means, but I even have a number of more successes than I did once I first joined. That offers me more confidence to tackle more contrarian bets, and in VC it’s about believing in things nobody else believes and being right.”
