Unshackled Ventures Annual Summit aka UVAS, a recap!
TL;DR it was fantastic, we’re so grateful, you all are incredible, let’s do it all again
A month later, we’re still buzzing and energized by gathering in-person altogether for the first time in years ✨
First off, a deep and sincere thank you once again to everyone who was able to make it. The energy, insights, conversations, and overall participation was such a joy to be in the presence of that afternoon and early evening. While it’s challenging, if possible, to capture the full magic of UVAS in written form, we did want to try — for posterity and to share a bit of that magic with those that weren’t able to attend this year.
SUMMARY OF THE DAY
🎤 A Word from the GPs
Manan and Nitin kicked us off with an engaging and informative update on Funds I and II, as well as sharing some exciting updates regarding Fund III! We have other fun news to share soon. Keep an eye out for those announcements this summer 😃
🙌 The Women of Unshackled
After the GP presentation, the team was featured on a panel and discussed a range of topics and experiences of being women in venture. We invited a very special guest to moderate the panel 😇 Gracias, Maria, for being with us and facilitating. It was a beautiful full circle moment for us all.
A few highlights from the panel:
- We all look forward to the day where more teams in venture look like ours!
- There is unique power in our perspective and decision-making on our team because of the breadth of knowledge and lived experience we individually, and collectively, bring
- Each of the women on the team have had very different paths to a career in venture yet we all share a passion and commitment to support immigrant founders so they can succeed
⛰️ Journeys in Immigration & Entrepreneurship
It was beyond special to hear three of our founders describe what their journeys have been like to get to where they are now. Massive amounts of gratitude to Arpit (Cache Energy), Yidian (PolyGone), and Michelle (Unearth Insights) for speaking so candidly and powerfully about what it means to come to this country, to build here, and what forging a path for themselves has taken. For those of you who weren’t able to make it to UVAS this year, you missed out on experiencing the deep humor and sharp wit of these three in-person!
What stood out to us as a team, and was echoed back to us by folks in the room that afternoon:
- The perseverance and perspective of being an immigrant can be an incredible superpower and undeniable competitive advantage
- Immigrant founders do a prolific amount of work in parallel, and on top of, to building their startups:
– Rebuilding professional and social relationships
– Overcoming linguistic and cultural differences
– Navigating the American immigration system
– Transcending negative perceptions and biases toward immigrants - Our community of founders are brilliant, yes, but also kind and generous with their skills expertise
- The mutual investment we all have in one another’s’ success — as VCs, LPs, founders — feels truly exceptional
🪵 Fireside Chats with Calanthia of Masa Finance & Tony of Plantible Foods
We all learned so much about what the futures of food, agtech, fintech, and web3 might (should?!) hold. Two of our fantastic founders generously shared their insights, as well as their perspectives on where industries are heading.
Toplines about Calanthia, FinTech, and Web3
- Calanthia paved a remarkable path; from China to getting a scholarship to Georgetown, then on to being the founder of Paypal Ventures, and the youngest VP at Fast
- There have already been various generations of Web3 and yet, Masa has executed exceedingly well amidst crypto winter
- Masa launched the most successful identity infrastructure onchain in the form of a Soul Bound Token
- “I didn’t come this far to be mediocre.” That is exactly right, Calanthia 🙌
Toplines about Tony, Food, and AgTech
- Plantible initially started in Netherlands with a lease on a 2-acre farm in San Marcos, CA
- There are numerous pros and cons of the food ingredient supply chain and synthetic & lab grown products face an increasing number of challenges
- Plantible’s product continues to grow in pricing power, going from $8/kg to a recent PO at $65/kg
- Plant proteins > “Plant-based” proteins
For those of you who attended, if you took photos during Calanthia & Tony’s Fireside Chats, please send them our way. All of us were so engaged and listening that we didn’t take any!
🍾 Connecting and Cheersing to 9 Years!
Thanks to Peter (an immigrant from the Philippines, by the way) and his spectacular team at THE LINE (owned and developed by a woman from Taiwan!), we enjoyed a delicious happy hour after our LP meeting. We also were graced by the sounds of the exceptionally talented, local, and all-women or nonbinary band Agua Pura. We know it’s far from the same as having attended but, if you want to experience a touch of the vibe from the superlative afternoon and early evening together, here’s our UVAS-inspired playlist.
Simply said, what a treat to be together. We met some of you for the first time in-person. We had the joy and honor of introducing some of you to each other. We got to clink our glasses together, hug, and celebrate nine years of Unshackled. Here’s to many, many more!
Speaking of which, please save the date now. At UVAS on Tuesday, Apr 30, 2024, we celebrate a DECADE of Unshackled!
🙏 Special thanks to our founders
As a surprise treat, during our LP meeting, we shared a video with messages from our founders about what working with Unshackled has meant to them so far.
Check-in/out Activities
Thank you to those who contributed your thoughts to our check-in and checkout activities at UVAS. We delighted in reading the range of responses. Here are the thoughts that were shared as folks were on their way in, and their way out, of the LP meeting. We asked…
What are you curious about?
What are you taking with you from here?
Thanks for being on this adventure with us. See you next year to celebrate a decade together!
Save the Date — Tuesday, Apr 30, 2024 🎉
Some of organizations represented at UVAS:
- AME Cloud Ventures
- Bantam Group
- Beacon Fund
- Bee Partners
- Cache Energy
- California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (IBank)
- Cambridge Associates
- Cendana Capital
- Children’s Health Foundation
- Concrete Rose Capital
- Dolby Ventures
- defy
- Emerson Collective
- Emergence Capital
- Engineering Capital
- Forerunner Ventures
- Garuda Ventures
- General Catalyst
- GreatPoint Ventures
- High Country Advisors
- Illuminate Ventures
- Industry Ventures
- Jazz Venture Partners
- Kapor Capital
- Mind the Bridge
- Olive Capital
- Patni Financial Advisors
- Prosperity7 Ventures
- Reach Capital
- Ridge Ventures
- Slauson & Co.
- Sorenson Impact Group
- StartOut
- Strive
- Roble Ventures
- Structure Capital
- Trinity Lane Capital
- Ulu Ventures
- Unlock Venture Partners
- 1517 Fund
- So many incredible Angels and Individuals!
