Bringing the Stars Within Reach — Inovia Capital EiRs
Our full team recently regrouped at beautiful Kenauk Nature, Quebec, to pause and take time to think about the future of our firm. So much has happened at Inovia lately that we’ve found ourselves in a place where even the air tastes fundamentally different. No matter how we look at it though, we’ve found that this feeling is invariably rooted in the successes of the dreamers and entrepreneurs in our community.
Coming out of the retreat, we wanted to celebrate our Entrepreneurs in Residence (EiRs) who are each entering an exciting new chapter of their life: Vasu Nadella who joined us earlier this year is now jumping onto his next rocketship; Ramit Kar, who joined us this summer is already close to launching his next big thing; and Sam Pasupalak who joined us only a few weeks ago is beginning to explore the world with us and fine-tune his vision for the future.
Vasu holds the record for sending the most Slack messages at Inovia in any given week, by a wide margin. The breadth of those messages is what is actually fascinating — it makes us wonder how one could possibly gain so much depth in any one subject. Countless times, Vasu brought us to the bleeding edge of technology — at the intersection of spectral sensing, biochemistry, machine learning and crypto, to name a few — looked up and pulled us to new heights beyond our imagination. In only a few months as EiR at Inovia, he has been instrumental in shaping how we think about frontier technology while also bringing us closer to so many founders blazing their own trail.
Vasu — we will always be game to ride along your side, even if that sometimes mean falling off and breaking a few things here and there (say like an Apple Watch).
“I’ll always be immensely grateful to the Inovia team. In this group of amazing humans, I found a tribe that was dedicated to helping me improve my craft, develop stronger mental models and expand my perspective. The quality of this team is reflected in the tremendous quality of the founders they attract, and along with my new co-founders, I’m honored to be among that set.”
Ever since we can remember, Ramit has had a funny way of unbundling business models, distilling them into a carefully crafted system of equations and ultimately come up with his own unique solutions. He excels at this to the point where we have not yet found a company that could effectively obfuscate his instincts for problem-solving. We suspect that his hardcore gaming days have something to do with it (or perhaps it was his time in management consulting with McKinsey). In any case, we watched in awe as Ramit boldly launched Uber Western Canada and scaled it into a huge business, and were thrilled when he decided to join us as an EiR last summer. In this capacity, he has already deeply impacted our way of thinking about and investing in exciting new marketplaces.
Ramit — we will always be there for you — can’t wait to see what venture lies ahead (whether on a BBS or not).
“The venture industry has always fascinated me and I’ve had a calling towards it for many years. The most interesting part of being an EiR for me was the “Choose your own adventure” aspect of it. It allowed me to dive right in and become a member of the investment team at Inovia, while also allowing me time to figure out and take steps on the next big startup.“
When Sam exited Maluuba to Microsoft last year, the perfectly natural reaction after closing the deal and meeting Bill Gates was to register to advance social studies at the London School of Economics… right? That is Sam — a seemingly infinite source of raw energy combined with an insatiable thirst for knowledge. In many ways, he has contributed to cementing a new generation of Canadian entrepreneurs leveraging AI as a force to fulfill global aspirations. As an EiR at Inovia, the mandate to “find the next Google” working closely with Patrick & Mike from our London office resonated strongly.
Sam — we already know this was a great match. It is simply fantastic to have you onboard and chat away about which mountain we should try to summit or hypothesize about the next big adventure. Perhaps this is it.
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The EiR role at Inovia Capital
Our EiRs shape not just our investment thesis and community, but also our way of being in the world. The role is all about bringing the outer realms of possibility to operate within our walls; working in the trenches while still holding onto a wide-eyed wonder. It is about enabling the type of optimism needed to make a calculated leap of faith and overcome vertigo.
Milan Kundera captures the feeling well: “Anyone whose goal is ‘something higher’ must expect someday to suffer vertigo. What is vertigo? Fear of falling? No, Vertigo is something other than fear of falling. It is the voice of the emptiness below us which tempts and lures us […]”. EiRs live this every day and challenge us to touch that existential question.
Keep rocking 🚀
