30 September 2021

Joining the Team at Cervin Ventures

Rohit Rao shares his thoughts on joining the Cervin team as an Associate.

I’m excited to join the Cervin team as an Associate. I’ll be helping the team source deals through a variety of channels including accelerators and incubators and research new companies, themes, and industries for current and future investments aligned with Cervin’s investment thesis.

 

Prior to joining Cervin, I worked as an analyst at ICONIQ Capital, helping allocate capital for our clients across asset classes, and as an Associate at Kingfish Group, helping PE firms conduct due diligence on investment opportunities and selectively co-invest alongside them. The knowledge and experience I gained from these opportunities will be very helpful to me in my new role.

 

Why Cervin?

 

The opportunity to join the Cervin team is very exciting for me because I’ve wanted to work at a VC firm for as long as I can remember - collaborating with entrepreneurs and investing in the tech of the future. 

I wanted to join the Cervin team specifically because it’s an established venture firm, having been founded in 2011 with performance in the top quartile. Even though it’s a decade old firm, it’s still growing and evolving, which keeps things fast-paced and exciting.

 

I also found the small team size extremely appealing, as it means I can take on more responsibility and be actively mentored by four industry experts. All of the partners at Cervin Ventures were successful operators before getting into venture capital. They each founded or had senior roles in companies that proved to be highly successful. Each of the partners at Cervin brings operational experience to the table, which is invaluable when it comes to helping us make the right strategic recommendations for our portfolio companies.

 

Investing in category leaders

Cervin’s focus investment areas of enterprise applications, infrastructure, tools spaces are all incredibly exciting to me. We are seeing a lot of exciting opportunities in the areas of:

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- Cybersecurity - This area will only continue to get more important as our relationship with data grows. Unique strategies to protect data both at the cloud and application level should be exciting to watch over the next few years.

- AI/ML -  As data needs grow exponentially and AI/ML gains wide industry adoption, the need for generating quicker and more accurate models becomes essential.

- Edge computing - While cloud computing will continue to be important for large scale data sets, edge computing allows for reduced lag time and costs, where potential opportunities arise.

My day-to-day at Cervin

As a junior member of a small team, I am supporting the partners and helping to further Cervin’s brand, reach and network so we continue to find and invest in the best founders. Given the smaller team size, I can see the impact of my work in real-time as I focus on research, sourcing, and networking. 

Besides sourcing, research is a huge part of my day-to-day work. I spend time investigating new companies, themes, and industries for current and future investments. My goal is to stay on top of trends and create competitive landscapes to better understand both incumbents and startups aligned with our investment thesis.

I also do a lot of network building, which entails meeting and engaging with interesting people who would be good additions to our network of entrepreneurs, advisors, and industry experts.

Cervin is on the path to becoming a preeminent early stage venture firm and I look forward to helping them get there.