Team Spotlight on Eva: The empowering and confident creator, who inspires her network with infinite ideas and humor
Bringing in creative ideas and many years of operational experience, Eva undoubtedly introduces a different perspective as a Principal at DNX, and a valued member of the investment team. Eva’s role involves finding promising investment opportunities, focusing on the entrepreneurs as well as the product/market fit and market opportunity. Her areas of expertise are varied from technical depth, company culture, and product and GTM strategy, to scaling up operations — all supported by her diverse background and high-quality network. She’s personally driven by commitment, trust, and authenticity. While attention to detail is key, Eva prides herself on keeping the big picture in perspective, ensuring her work helps accelerate founder leadership, creativity, and innovation. The infectious, positive and collaborative spirit at DNX is what Eva regards as the primary instrument in her community impact. “You fulfill your own potential by helping others fulfill theirs” is the guiding star in her pursuit of leadership and “being the change.”
Born and raised in Sweden, Eva completed her Master's in CS, with a focus on Machine Learning and Autonomous Systems. This eventually saw her through 20 years of experience in various roles in a startup, scaleup, and large organizations. The past decade has been in product management and GTM strategy. Prior to DNX, Eva enjoyed working at Cloudera, but through her own angel investments and startup mentorship programs with the Nordic Innovation House in Silicon Valley, she realized she always had an inherent affinity for helping entrepreneurs — and her passion in this area was only growing. It was only natural that when crossing paths with the same-valued, but the diverse-minded team at DNX, she instantly decided to take the plunge and go after what had always captivated her: having an even bigger impact on innovation, businesses, and humanity.
What is your advice for entrepreneurs?
I’d implore entrepreneurs to stick with the goal but be flexible in the pathway of getting there. Furthermore, culture and a clearly stated vision are important factors for how your team will succeed. To cover for your blindsides, hire people who compliment you. Most of all, I’d urge entrepreneurs to plan and execute as if they’re going to succeed and go full speed forward; be fearless, be the change, be thought through, be honest, and be kind.
What sectors or trends are you focusing on right now?
I’m focused on innovation that will help ease and accelerate the enterprise journey. I am interested in how production-quality machine learning can help enhance error-prone or labor-intensive processes — especially in a distributed world. I also want to do our part and have started digging deeper into Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) guidelines and new thinking within SaaS for Climate Tech and Sustainability.
What are some challenges you have faced in your VC career?
I find it difficult to say no to entrepreneurs or innovative ideas that I genuinely believe in. The reality is that if I can’t see how I can help the company with all that it takes to grow, and what a VC should be helping an entrepreneur with, then it is better for them to continue finding a match elsewhere.
What do you enjoy doing when you aren’t working?
I love to attend art shows or music events. I enjoy baking, trying new restaurants, spending time outdoors, or watching a good movie. I spend most of my free time with family and friends.
What are your must-read books or top podcasts?
I love Radiolab. My must-read books include The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton Christensen and Women in Tech- A book for Guys by Eva Helén. On the fiction side, I would say 1984, Ender’s Game, or various crime novels (Swedish ones particularly.)
Anything else you’d like to share?
I speak three languages (Swedish, English and German - if you do not count programming languages, then it would be five more). I have two fat cats. I like driving fast cars, but don’t like when my husband drives too fast. I am actually pretty good at drawing animals and I have composed some music in my past. I prefer decaf lattes (yeah, I know: what’s the point?) and I truly believe that the best conversations are held while walking in nature. When I retire I will live by the ocean and write books. Not much else to tell, lol.
