E127: Priya Saiprasad (General Partner, Touring Capital)

The Desi VC with Akash Bhat

Priya Saiprasad is a General Partner at Touring Capital, a fund investing in enterprise-focused AI powered global startups. She co-founded Touring after 13 years in venture capital, M&A and enterprise technology.

She was most recently a Partner at SoftBank Vision Fund, where she led investments into category-defining software companies including Pixis, Vendr, Observe.ai, CommerceIQ, Sendoso and Skedulo.

Previously, Priya was at Mayfield Fund focused on early-growth investments, and a founding member of M12 (Microsoft’s Venture Fund), where she led investments in Go1, Workboard, PandaDoc, Element AI (acquired by ServiceNow), and Bonsai (acquired by Microsoft). Prior to that, she was a Deal Lead in Square’s M&A team leading acquisitions at the intersection of software and machine learning.

Priya was recognized by Forbes in 2018 as part of their 30 under 30 in Venture Capital list. She is actively involved with All Raise, Neythri, and several prominent Women in Tech associations. Priya holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.

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Episode Notes:

1. How did Priya end up in venture (2:36)
2. What about venture surprised Priya the most (6:00)
3. Insecurities as/of an investor (11:25)
4. Learnings as an investor when investments haven’t really worked out (17:02)
5. How can one acquire the skills to assist founders, even if they haven't personally experienced those challenges? (25:05)
6. Investing is personal: Do investors derive guidance from aspects of their life when making investment decisions? (29:35)
7. How does competition drive investors (34:52)
8. Prestige and perception in venture (41:30)
9. Advice Priya would give her younger self (47:20)

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Social Links:

• Follow ⁠Priya on Twitter⁠
• Follow ⁠Priya on LinkedIn⁠
• Follow ⁠The Desi VC on LinkedIn⁠
• Follow ⁠Akash Bhat on Twitter⁠
• Follow ⁠Akash Bhat on LinkedIn