Team Spotlight on Rio: The adventurous, out-of-the-box thinker, who makes everyone feel part of the DNX family
The remarkable impact entrepreneurs can have by disrupting legacy players, drives Rio in his investment decisions. As a Managing Partner at DNX, his work week includes a variety of responsibilities, including: sourcing new investment opportunities in innovative companies; supporting existing portfolio companies; having fruitful conversations with new well-fit LPs, and keeping in close touch with existing investors. In the dense and highly competitive field of Venture Capital in the US, and especially Silicon Valley, Rio believes DNX is uniquely positioned — being differentiated is of utmost importance! The firm has developed unique ways of supporting portfolio companies that are highly appreciated by our portfolio entrepreneurs and their teams. But what sticks out is the commitment of the entire team. When DNX commits, all of us commit 100%. The DNX team gives our best, and we are all in. And perhaps by osmosis or our style of leading by example, we see our portfolio entrepreneurs do the same: commit 100% and bring their very best.
Rio is a true citizen of the world: he was born in Japan, raised in Singapore & Brazil, and has spent the past 17 years in the USA. In his early career, Rio worked for a corporate VC (Presidio Venture Partners) at Sumitomo Corporation but soon realized that excitement, for him, lay beyond the ecosystem of corporate ventures. He jumped on the VC train by joining and spending seven years at Globespan Capital Partners where he built and expanded his network in the ecosystem. Later he met with Mitch and Q to join forces to launch DNX. Intrigued by the notion of helping to build a startup from its foundation and to have a hand in smaller players winning over the market, Rio began his journey at DNX.
What are the main things you consider when looking at a potential investment?
Matching up with a new opportunity is a marriage of sorts — you intend to have a future with this partner, so it’s imperative to feel aligned with their vision and work ethic. It’s important to gauge their communication style, given that there will always be ups and downs in a relationship — both parties need to commit to sticking by each other, even when things get tough.
What is your advice for entrepreneurs?
Introspection is crucial. Know yourself deeper than you want to — to be able to contribute fully to your investors, partners, and customers, you must be sure of who you are, what your skills are, and where you want to go. Familiarity with your weaknesses is critical, and so is continually striving towards self-betterment. It’s impossible to be perfect and be proficient in every skill required in the field; it’s only when you know what you are missing that you are able to build a robust team around yourself that can help you grow and thrive.
What are some challenges you’ve faced in your VC career?
I’ve found a challenge in this industry is that new things are always thrown at you, and it’s important to be ahead of the game and on top of new innovations. You need to be proactive, stick your neck out, and figure out what’s happening — learning new things this way is the challenge. I’ve realized that the only way to feel in control of this challenge goes back to knowing yourself; admit what you don’t know, stay humble and be open to learning, and you’ll gradually gain a sense of what’s going to happen and the impacts and consequences of such a development.
What sectors or trends excite you?
Cybersecurity has always fascinated me — the level of sophistication and the speed of innovation in that sector are unmatched. Issues including the security talent shortage, the growing complications of IT infra, increasing trends of a nation-state attack, higher sensitivity in privacy, and further pressure in faster release in DevOps, are making a perfect storm for innovations in the sector. Most recently DevSecOps, IoT Security, Web3 Security and SW Supply Chain have been very exciting for me (learn more about my views in this blog post on SW supply chain risk.)
What do you enjoy doing when not working?
I have three kids, and we all love sports — we spend a lot of time surfing, kiteboarding, kite foiling, mountain biking, skiing, and skateboarding as a family.
