Our New Head of Marketing on ‘Switching from Startup to VC’

Why every fund should prioritize Marketing and Community

My path didn’t begin in finance. In fact, it began in a tech accelerator.

Back in college, three good friends and I started a software company that provided real-time analytics to hotels. Everything was great, until it was not. My buddy owned a handful of hotels we could beta test in, however, we had no money or resources. It was at that moment we applied to Dreamit Ventures Accelerator and became a real company. After eventually selling the business for a nominal amount of money, I was addicted to the startup world. Not for the buzzwords, and certainly not for the hours, but for the close-knit team and extreme personal growth.

In the years after Dreamit, I would go on to lead omni-channel marketing at a few different startups (Rize, Burrow, Otherland) and learn the intricacies of proper unit economics. As I graduated from Seed to Series B, I experienced the ups and the downs of growth. Luckily, I had mentors along the way that made this rollercoaster more of a joy ride. Their expert knowledge aided my development, and I strived to return the favor to others who were in my shoes. This led me to advise early-stage companies and to join NextGen VC as a Venture Partner, as well as develop Perpetua Project, a curated platform for founders, investors, and operators. All in all, I learned a couple things throughout my windy road:

1. Resources, such as financing, talent, OKR structuring, and playbooks, are crucial for growth.
2. Access to advisors, experts, and a broader community foster a greater chance of success.
3. Building a uniform brand voice that infuses personality into a company’s communication makes a difference.

Reflecting on my journey, I wish I had known that all of these resources existed from day one. It is for this reason that I am making my goal to empower future founders with the resources they think they need and the ones they have yet to figure out. A great venture firm equips their portfolio companies with these pillars, and I look forward to doing it on behalf of Corigin Ventures.

Why Marketing should be ingrained in VC DNA

Building brand awareness for anything in life is important, whether that’’s for your company or for yourself. However, all objectives have different outcomes. For example: When marketing a company, you sell more products and increase revenue. When marketing a fund, you achieve better deal flow and increase LP dollars. When marketing yourself, you become a bigger fish in this large pond called life.

For a VC fund, specifically, it means carving out a brand voice that’s different from the rest of the space. It’s everything from building a content calendar full of events to a deep bench of experts that can help elevate the firm and support the founders we invest in. That’s why marketing is important, but how do we make it impactful? Lucky for us, growth is always something measurable. For example: The more valuable of a platform we build, the better our portfolio companies become, the greater return we acquire, the more deals we win. To provide a more visual representation:

The convergence of platform, community, and marketing.

As Aubrie, Partner at Corigin Ventures, would say, “Everyone in VC is trying to build a brand and build relationships; that’s table stakes. We need a unique brand platform that plays to our strengths as a team and partners.”

It’s that type of thinking we need more of. What’s your fund’s unique strength? Is it hiring, OKR development, growth resources, content, proprietary networks, events, customer acquisition/business development, founder wellness, series A fundraising? This is what goes into finding a voice and adding true value.

My new role broken down

So what exactly will I be accomplishing at Corigin Ventures? To give you the inside scoop, I’ll be:

• Formulating our brand voice and marketing strategy across: Content, social, website, events, press, etc.
• Supporting our portfolio founders as they launch and grow by providing resources, knowledge support, growth playbooks, and talent.
• Executing on operational and OKR work with portfolio companies to align everyone on overarching goals and timelines.
• Assisting with fundraising and milestones to get our companies to a healthy Series A or the next level.
• Building a reliable platform and community that activates a deep bench of expert networks and advisors for our founders to lean on.

All this being said, I very much look forward to embarking on this new journey with Corigin Ventures. From being just weeks in, I can tell the team is going to go very far, and I can’t wait to be there with them along the way. Stay tuned, lots to come and share!

You can find me on LinkedIn or on any social channels @ericaamatori