Kin Ventures: why I joined and how we are different.
Where Talent meets Capital
In 2022, I wanted to embark on a professional growth journey and spoke with my mentors, leaders and friends on “what’s next?”. It became obvious that my experiences at UiPath and Microsoft were invaluable and I want to thank my managers, peers, investors, colleagues and team for my growth. It also became clear that I wanted to give back to the technology community. At the same time, the macro-economic climate rapidly changed. Rising interest rates and oil prices, war, supply chain shortages, inflation, Covid surges happening at the same time historically would be a statically anomaly. In risk management, they call this a “left-tail” event. I call it 2022!
I joined Kin Ventures as a Venture Partner to build generational companies (in addition to my day job at UiPath). I am very fortunate to be able to work for one of the fastest growing enterprise software companies and join a disruptive venture firm. From my first interaction with Tina and the team, the mission to truly partner with portfolio companies and provide a founder-first approach was evident. This is even more important in the current macroeconomic environment. We have seen venture capital investments trickle down, valuations normalize and investors urging portfolio companies to be financially disciplined and extend their runway. However, we see one unintended positive consequence of this shift — we see founders focusing on building products that customers love.
We see founders being forced to make trade-offs (and that’s okay). It is now generally accepted that sustained profitability is more important than growth at all costs. Every company I met over the last 18–24 months was quick to tell you their IPO timeline. However; in this environment the pressure is off to access the capital markets. The right decision now will outweigh the need to capture market share and set the foundation to build a generational company. Founders don’t have to do it alone. This is where Kin Ventures is different. Tina, Ben and I have walked as, with and along the best founders in the industry. We have spent hours (and sometimes days) debating the pros/cons of a decision. In addition to our role as an investor, we provide our portfolio companies strategic advice and access to engineering talent that makes us different.
With capital in hand, I am excited with an experienced team of founder investors about evaluating, partnering and investing in Enterprise Software and Supply Chain companies. Our ability to screen and partner with scrappy founders makes the timing perfect. We know the founders who focus, make tough decisions and know when to ask for help will succeed. Kin Ventures will be there every step of the way.
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Dhruv Asher is a Venture Partner at Kin Ventures. Dhruv will raise and invest capital to build generational companies. At Kin Ventures, Dhruv will also leverage his deep expertise around building, scaling and his operating experience to give portfolio companies a competitive edge.
Dhruv will continue to lead Business Development and Technology Alliances at UiPath (NYSE: PATH). Dhruv sets the product vision and his team executes the strategic partnerships and ecosystem strategy as part of the executive team from Series B to UiPath’s Initial Public Offering and beyond.
Before joining UiPath, Dhruv was a senior member of the Corporate and Business Development teams at Microsoft, where he sourced, evaluated, negotiated and executed acquisitions, strategic partnerships and investments to support Microsoft’s strategic priorities. Before joining the Corporate and Business Development teams, Dhruv was a senior trader at Microsoft’s Capital Markets group managing a proprietary $7 billion Strategic Investment portfolio. He started her career in trading at Robertson Stephens, a technology investment bank.
Dhruv received a BA, cum laude, in Economics and Communication from Denison University and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management. Dhruv is a CFA charterholder.
