Catching up with Yohei Nakajima of Untapped Capital
By Courtney McCrea and Sara Zulkosky, Co-Founders & Managing Partners of Recast Capital
Here at Recast Capital, we’re fortunate to work with incredible emerging managers in venture. To help showcase these exceptional GPs and their funds, we’ve launched “Catching Up,” a new series featuring individual profiles on the managers and funds in our community. Read on below!
We had the pleasure of catching up with Yohei Nakajima, General Partner at Untapped Capital, investing in early-stage startups and championing unexpected founders with exceptional support. We talked about the importance of thorough founder guidance, strategies for LP networking, Yohei’s work spinning the Disney Accelerator alongside The Walt Disney Company, his Directorship of Pipeline at Techstars, launching Untapped, and more.
Recast Capital (RC): Welcome, Yohei! Shall we start at the beginning? You’ve transitioned between Tokyo, Seattle, back to Tokyo and then to California — quite an experience in and of itself.
Yohei Nakajima (YN): Yes! I was born in Tokyo, moved to Seattle when I was two, and returned to Tokyo for high school; my parents wanted me to absorb Japanese culture. It was an intense experience, being Japanese, having lived in the U.S. all my life, and reassimilating into high school in Japan. I came back to California for college.
RC: Why California, specifically LA?
YN: I knew I wanted to come back to the US for college, California had great sunshine — and felt a bit more laid back and relaxed. There was a nascent but very exciting startup community emerging; I also had a lot of college friends in the area. So, I dove in and started meeting people. The first event I attended was a startup weekend — and the energy was incredible. I knew I wanted to be surrounded by that kind of exhilaration and innovation. I continued meeting more and more people, hosted events, ran educational programming for founders…
RC: Sounds like you focused deeply on the community side.
YN: Definitely. I was essentially working as a community organizer, going to events, asking if I could help, getting out there. My first real gateway into VC was when Techstars came to L.A. and I joined them to spin up the Disney Accelerator.
RC: Wow, that must have been fascinating.
YN: It was. Having been focused on building community, it was incredible to sit in a room with seasoned investors and listen to how they assessed entertainment startups. It’s so different being on the investor side versus being a founder. The time at Disney challenged me to balance the two opposite approaches — fast and loose versus extreme structure, intricate process versus freedom of new ideas — it was a transformative experience, and, actually, led me to become Techstars’ Director of Pipeline.
RC: How did that role function?
YN: Techstars ran roughly 30 programs, each responsible for their own sourcing. I became the first central resource, and implemented a comprehensive outbound strategy. When any of the programs would kick off applications, I’d seek out a shortlist of companies to consider.
RC: You gained so much experience on both the investor and founder sides. When did you know you wanted to start a fund?
YN: Especially after Techstars, I knew I wanted to build my own fund, so I went to work for one first: Scrum Ventures, where I gained the knowledge, experience, and skills I needed. At Scrum Ventures, I also built Scrum Studio, designing, leading, and overseeing their partner programs with Nintendo, Dentsu and Panasonic. I’d had the idea for Untapped and couldn’t shake it. I also knew I wanted to be surrounded by founder energy. Becoming a VC felt like an incredible role because I could support founders with both capital as well as spend time with them and help them grow.
RC: What’s at the core of Untapped?
YN: It’s essentially about creating opportunities for overlooked founders, connecting them to the right networks, and working closely alongside them. We’re a pre-seed and seed generalist fund (led by me and my partner, Jessica Jackley, who also founded kiva.org and several other startups).
RC: What sorts of founders are you seeking?
YN: We look to invest in founders on the edges of the startup ecosystem because we’ve seen that the pre-seed stage is heavily reliant on referrals, with a lot of funds who want to invest in the same few deals. Given all the outbound I have done, I know we can identify new founders who are building breakthrough businesses; they just don’t yet have access to VC through their network.
RC: So, you’re really helping founders meet the right investors and connect to a bigger network.
YN: Right, now the burden is on founders to find the investors willing to back them. But in my experience, if an investor is looking at a list and reaching out to companies, they’re already interested, which shows you can have strong returns doing outbound. Our hope at Untapped is that we help founders spend less time raising so they can expand their community. This, of course, we believe will help democratize access to VC.
RC: I think we can all agree that’s an outstanding goal. Any words of wisdom for emerging fund managers?
YN: It’s all about the people — the founders and mentors and others with whom you collaborate and build. The more people you meet, the bigger your world becomes.
To learn more about Untapped Capital, visit untapped.vc.
About Recast Capital
Recast Capital is a 100% women-owned venture capital platform that invests in and supports top-tier emerging fund managers, with a focus on diverse partnerships. The platform was built to drive returns and create substantive change in the venture industry.
Founded by seasoned, institutionally-trained fund investors Courtney McCrea and Sara Zulkosky, Recast Capital leverages its deep network and exceptional track record to provide its limited partners diversified exposure to top-performing emerging managers, as well as access to a pipeline of the future’s industry-leading franchises.
Recast also launched the Enablement and Accelerate Programs as powerful complements to its fund investment strategy; the programs provide learning and development opportunities for emerging managers in venture, allowing Recast to support more of the community than just those it can invest in via their fund investment strategies.
Learn more at www.recastcapital.com.
