Meet Dhruv, Georgina, and Luke!

Very excited to introduce to you all the newest members of the Pi Labs family — Dhruv, Georgina, and Luke! 👋

Dhruv, Georgina, Luke (left to right).

We are committed to making the VC and tech space accessible to everyone, so when we went about looking for new talented people to join us in our mission, we wanted to create a recruitment process where candidates could be fairly compared. We run a blind recruitment process for our roles (and will be doing so for all our roles going forward) through Applied, assessing candidates through a debiased and anonymous process. Also, we partnered with the Future VC development programme, an initiative dedicated to improving the inclusiveness of the Venture Capital industry, to source diverse candidates and were lucky enough to meet Georgina (scroll down to meet!) through this initiative.

We know we still have work to do on this front, but we’re proud to be moving in the right direction and are committed to continuously learning and improving.

We recently took some time to ask our new team members to share a little bit about themselves — let us introduce you to Dhruv, Georgina and Luke! Over to them…

Dhruv — Investment Team

1. What does your role at Pi Labs entail?

I recently joined the investment team at Pi Labs. I work across the spectrum of our investment strategy, i.e. the Growth Programme and direct Seed/Series A investments. The role is all encompassing, it involves sourcing high quality start-ups, all the way to helping our companies scale and eventually provide successful exits for the fund.

2. What were you doing before you joined Pi Labs?

I have a mix of investment and capital raising experience. Prior to joining Pi Labs, I was part of the Embassy Group where I raised $100mn equity for WeWork India and made multiple fund of fund, start-up and Pre-IPO investments across the USA, India and UK for the Family Office. Before that, I was part of the founding team for mid-market real estate investments at Piramal Capital and also did a capital raising role at Colliers.

3. Do you have any advice for anyone looking to get into the VC world?

VC firms are always on the lookout for exceptional talent that can bring a unique perspective to the table. While there are many different approaches one can take depending on their background and area of interest within the VC space, these are a few insights from experience of moving from RE investments to an Early Stage VC firm –

Become an Angel Investor

• I would recommend reading Angel by Jason Calacanis to kick off your journey. It’s an incredibly easy read with straightforward points to become a successful angel.
• However, reading/listening will only get you so far. The next step is to join high quality angel networks — AngelList and LetsVenture are great platforms for you to start seeing start-up deal flow, meet founders and start building your investment thesis.
• I spoke to 34 founders before making my first investment and the learnings from all those calls were invaluable. This experience is highly relevant for early stage VC investing.

More generally –

• Be curious about start-ups and be passionate about innovation (usually comes naturally)
• Build a network by helping founders and fellow investors. These can be simple gestures to make introductions to potential hires, customers or insights if it’s your area of expertise. You’d be surprised by how a small gesture can come back as a massive opportunity many years later.
• Finally, I’m always happy to speak to people that are passionate about start-up investments and would like to catch up. Feel free to reach me on Linkedin! 

4. Reading, watching, or listening to anything good?

Here are few daily podcasts and newsletter subscriptions I enjoy reading/listening to -

Podcasts

World news: The Economist

Founder insights: The Diary of a CEO

VC insights: The Twenty Minute VC

Newsletters

Finimize

Quartz Daily

5. What do you do to relax and create time for yourself?

I try to meditate for at least 15 minutes every morning. This is my pocket of quiet time, and helps me start the day with a clear mind. When I travel (hopefully, soon!), I make sure to book in a few dives if I’m in the right place — there’s nothing quite like the calmness of the ocean at 30 meters deep.

Georgina — Investment Team

1. What does your role at Pi Labs entail?

I have joined the investment team at Pi Labs where I have been focused on sourcing and pitching new deals for our direct fund and growth programme investments. This involves connecting with founders and developing a good sense of which companies to put forward to the team. I am also involved in our due diligence and investment committee process — a fundamental part of our investment process. I also have some portfolio management duties in helping to support our existing companies through sourcing advisors and venture partner meetings. One of the key aspects of my role has been to scout and produce a Breakfast series event for female founders as part of Pi Labs commitment to increasing diversity in the investment portfolio.

2. What were you doing before you joined Pi Labs?

My professional experience prior to joining Pi Labs has been in the legal profession and as a startup founder. I have worked in the legal profession for over 15 years specialising in landlord and tenant law. Alongside my legal career I have built several startups. These include an events and online dating service for black professionals. A startup conference for founders and a fitness subscription box. In 2015, I moved to Lagos, Nigeria to launch a constitutional law centre and LawTech Accelerator with the aim of making the constitution accessible to all Nigerian citizens.

3. Do you have any advice for anyone looking to get into the VC world?

I feel like I’m still in the early stages of my journey into VC but as my path into VC hasn’t been very traditional, I would be happy to share a few things that have helped me so far:

• Embrace the theory of possibility: I’m not your typical candidate for VC, I’m a black, female and haven’t had any prior experience in VC. On paper it would seem impossible for me to break into VC but I have made a point of not focusing on that narrative. At the beginning of my journey I looked for inspiration on how to break into VC by reading other people’s stories. The two that helped inspire me the most on what is possible were Stephen Schawarzman‘s book “Whatever it Takes” (Black Rock Founder), Ray Dalio‘s book Principles and Arlan Hamilton journey founding Backstage Capital.
• Fight Imposter Syndrome: I think the biggest obstacle you face when breaking into VC is overcoming imposter syndrome. I know that’s been my biggest challenge. It can feel intimidating being on a team of all male VC‘S. But I work everyday to combat the feeling of imposter syndrome by asking questions and being open to all opportunities. Adopt a positive mindset and the understanding that regardless of where you are coming from your perspective is unique. Everybody started exactly where you were, with no experience and lots of doubts, the only difference is they never gave up.
• Find the third door: There is a great book called The Third Door which talks about the journey of successful people who broke into their respective industries by getting creative and finding a third door. I have applied this to my VC Journey by finding my third door through joining VC programs such as Included VC and Future VC. Both have given me the opportunity to learn, network and get practical experience in VC. If you really want to break into VC it is extremely competitive so you may need to find a third door. This could be joining programs, starting a podcast or writing a blog. Do whatever it takes to stand out of the crowd.
• Start to develop your thesis: I believe that in order to stand out from the crowd you have to develop your unique view point. I’m still in the process of this one but I think it is starting to take shape. I’d like to build a career in VC that empowers and enables more females and founders of colour to either get funded or break into VC. However, my thesis is that to achieve this we have to take pro-active steps to invite them in and make them feel welcomed in the space. I can tell you from experience that it’s not easy being the only one in the room. I think we all have to be aware of this and look for ways to combat it. Programs such as Future VC and Included VC are definitely trying to combat this. But if everyone who gets invited in brings in a few friends then we can make the party way more inclusive all round.

4. Reading, watching, or listening to anything good?

I’m a very quick reader and have probably read over 500 books so far. I read multiple books at the same time.

Reading: Whatever it Takes by Stephen Schwarman, Principles by Ray Dalio, The surrender Experiment by Michael Singer, The Big Leap by Gay Hendriks

Podcasts: Nathan Latka, Noah Kagan Presents, Problem Solvers, Startup Stories by Mixergy

5. What do you do to relax and create time for yourself?

• Hiking, reading, listening to music and when I really need to relax I book a spa day.
• I love travelling — my favourite thing to do is short beautiful staycations and weekend escapes to cities across Europe. So far my favourite cities are Lithuania, Madeira and Vienna.

Luke — Research Lead

1. What does your role at Pi Labs entail?

I’m the Research Lead at Pi Labs. It’s my job to keep abreast of what’s happening in PropTech and what could happen in future. This helps identify potential investments for our fund, and keeps our stakeholders informed of how they are impacted by change. You can see my work shared in our white papers, Medium articles, and events.

2. What were you doing before you joined Pi Labs?

I have been working on an Executive MBA at Oxford. While doing so, I have been conducting research as a junior academic at the university’s Future of Real Estate Initiative, as well as advising real estate entrepreneurs. My research focus at Oxford has included automated valuation models, post-COVID retail, environmental impacts of real estate, as well as real estate fractionalisation technologies. Before coming to the UK, I built and ran a real estate research and investment start-up in Australia.

3. Do you have any advice for anyone looking to get into the VC world?

One VC differs a lot to another. Pi Labs, for instance, has been focused on early-stage start-ups. This is exciting because the research isn’t just an exercise in accounting ratios and growth rates. You have to apply your imagination and creativity to be able to visualise what alternative futures are in store for these entrepreneurs.

4. Reading, watching, or listening to anything good?

I usually have a few things going at once. I’m partly through ‘The cult of we’, ‘What we need to do now’, and ‘Never split the difference’. Aside from that, I recently finished Shoe Dog on my daily commute and some thoroughly stimulating reads on the topic of econometrics. When I want to completely switch off, I’ll throw on the Game of Thrones audiobook.

5. What do you do to relax and create time for yourself?

I like going for a handful of solid runs each week. That really helps with focus. Otherwise, I’m a typical Aussie insofar as I like to be outside traveling, camping, hiking, skiing, etc.

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