Meet Rodrigo: Part-time geek, Spaniard abroad, Partner at Point Nine.
We’re excited to announce that Rodrigo Martinez has been upgraded to Partner at Point Nine.
Rodrigo joined us as a Truffle Pig (AKA Associate) about four years ago. Going from Associate to Partner in four short years isn’t something that happens often in the venture capital industry (or any other similar industry for that matter). It’s a testament to Rodrigo’s exceptional brainpower and work ethics. Of course, it also reflects our desire to keep the partnership young and fresh.
I remember that when Rodrigo came out as one of the finalists of our very first Truffle Pig hiring campaign and we were considering him versus several other excellent candidates, we considered Rodrigo a “high chance, high risk” choice. “High chance” because among all candidates who we saw, Rodrigo appeared to be the smartest one. “High risk” because he had less investing and operating experience than some of the other candidates, so it was less proven that he could do the job.
Fast-forward four years, and we couldn’t be happier that we took the risk on Rodrigo. (Obviously, Rodrigo also took a risk on us since Point Nine was kind of a like an early-stage startup at that time. We’ve grown up a little in the meantime, but not that much.).
Rodrigo played a key role in our investments in Automile, KISI, OnTruck, Sqreen and several other great companies. As a “part-time geek” (his words), he has been helping us expand our investment focus to areas that require a deep technological understanding such as AI/ML, drones, blockchain, developer tools, and IoT. As a “part-time devil’s advocate” (my words), Rodrigo keeps challenging our thinking and our assumptions. His insatiable intellectual curiosity will help us ensure that we’ll never become complacent and that we’ll keep reinventing ourselves. Last but not least, Rodrigo has been invaluable in broadening our reach to Spain, where we’ve made two investments already and are in the process of closing the third.
I don’t want to finish this post without saying a few words about diversity, especially in light of the recent, shocking revelations of how women have been treated in our industry. At Point Nine, we strive for diversity in every possible dimension, and we hugely benefit from having a healthy gender mix as well as people from five nationalities in our small team. In our investment team specifically, women are unfortunately very much under-represented (1 out of 6), though. Our long-term ambition is to change that, but this is obviously going to take time. We’re hoping that in the long run we’ll be able to play a positive role in the changes that our industry needs so badly. But today, let’s have a toast to Rodrigo, our new partner at Point Nine!
