Venture Capitalist

Manu Sharma

**** ***** ******, ***. ****, Dallas, Texas, 75201 l adcmmn@r.postjobfree.com l 214-***-****

SUMMARY

Experienced venture investor with track record of leading deals and portfolio management. Led roles in fundraising, fund operations, and LP relations both in India and United States. Background in management consulting and financial services. Passionate about helping disruptive businesses scale and create success for all stakeholders. WORK EXPERIENCE

Naya Ventures, Dallas, Texas and Hyderabad, India Aug. 2016 - Current Senior Associate, Early-stage US and India focused VC Fund

• Deal Flow and Transaction Responsibilities:

o Sourcing: Owning transaction pipeline, including sourcing own deals, outbound leads sourced through analysts, and referrals from advisors or network. Grew average annual deal flow pipeline from ~150 opportunities reviewed/yr to ~800/yr

o Due Diligence: Responsible for leading due diligence and leveraging technical, legal, and subject matter expert team members as required. Ownership of drafting final memo and presenting thesis to investment committee o Negotiations: Depending on deal, either #1 or #2 lead on deal terms negotiations directly with the CEO/Founders/ existing Board Members of the prospective portfolio company

• Portfolio Management (including select experiences) o Board Observer for Kore.ai, Hyperverge, Viviota, Amplif.ai, DocSynk, KeepTrax, and Global Outlook o Altia Systems acquisition by GN Group for $125M: assisted Managing Director in board management and creating a bidding war between Microsoft and Cisco over value proposition of panoramic cameras applying AI analytics, with result of Microsoft vendor, GN Group, acquiring Altia Systems at 21x revenue multiple o Hyperverge: Helped team pivot from B2C image recognition-based startup to B2B platform applying deep learning to applications in financial services, satellites, and E-KYC. Specific assistance in advising on market sizing, competitor mapping, and governance for scaling. Startup is currently processing 35 million faces a month for E- KYC, and on track for valuation >$1Billion

o Amplif.ai: Sourced and led all aspects of investment from Naya’s side. Developed personal relationship with CEO to help focus on business development efforts with Naya’s introductions. Helped launch partnerships with Cisco and Wipro, and assisted team on hiring and governance efforts. o Kore.ai: Led due diligence and supporting strategy and business development, including helping get four multinational customers. Kore is market leader in enterprise chatbots and personal assistants, and is currently doing more than $15M ARR

o Viviota: Sourced and led all aspects of investment from Naya’s side. When sales cycles were taking longer than expected, advised CEO and members on team on product packaging and marketing strategy, resulting in average sales cycle decrease of 35%. Helped launch POCs through Naya network with ZF and GM o Global Outlook: Product manager for Rettach, an email attachment categorization and storage tool. Led technical and sales team to collect end user data to develop key features and worked with marketing lead to create strategies for direct free usage. Rettach failed due to 1) being a tool and not a product (lack of monetization opportunities) and 2) not finding product-channel fit with value added resellers in Microsoft O365 ecosystem

• Fund Raising

o Helped raise Naya Ventures India Fund I, a $50M India focused fund with capital raised from Indian LPs. Extensive travel and knowledge of Indian markets and regulations as part of the raise. Helped define investment strategy, hire and train team members, and work with legal teams to launch fund paperwork o Helped pivot Naya US model to SPV based after Fund I, including changing investment thesis from Series Seed to Series A (typically $300K initial check size to $2M). Conducted solo and teamed roadshows to help fundraise with family offices and HNIs. Responsible for raising ~10% of SPV allocations from own network. SPV strategy led to 300% increase in average total allocation amount per year

• Fund Operations:

o Investor Relations: Responsible for quarterly investor updates for all Fund and SPVs, and being primary point of contact for all investors, including help with accounting issues and general fund questions o Fund Evangelization and Marketing: Ownership of all social media accounts and websites to promote fund. Developed relationships with multiple accelerators and key ecosystem players in Texas to create deal flow and spread knowledge of Naya. Featured in multiple news publications for thoughts on investing in Texas o Fund Accounting: Responsible for Fund accounting including review of financials with third party accounting firm and helping get K-1s to investors in reasonable amount of time o Governance: Work with legal firm to get all filings with multiple various government entities completed and filed accurately

o CFO: Playing controller/CFO role for fund and maintain cashflow. Minimize costs with vendors and track account receivables

o Recruiting: Responsible for bringing in own advisors and venture partners to contribute to Naya’s value-add capabilities. Advisors brought in significantly increased knowledge within blockchain and machine learning domains

o Market Development: Worked with Advisors and portfolio companies to find matches with portfolio companies to make introductions to customers. Weekly check-ins with portfolio companies to review Naya-brought sales pipeline and if any help is needed. Customers brought through this strategy included: Citibank, AAA, Motorola, Microsoft, Raytheon, Wipro, and others

EY, Dallas, Texas Aug. 2015 – Aug. 2016

Management Consulting Analyst, Financial Services Group

• Performance improvement and strategy consulting for financial services clients, including Citigroup, JP Morgan, Bank of America, and MoneyGram

• Engagement experiences included:

o Creation of regulatory change strategy for the consumer arm of a bulge bracket bank o Post-merger capabilities analysis for an IT company o Current state analysis of the anti-money laundering program for a money services business

• Part of an internal strategy team at EY that conducted analysis of the Fin-tech services capabilities of competitors EDUCATION:

Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas Aug. 2011 – May 2015

• Major: B.B.A. in Supply Chain Management & Minor in Economics

• 5 internships in Venture Capital, Consulting, Corporate Finance, Sales, and Accounting.

• VP of Service Fraternity, Member of Space Research Organization

• Winner of multiple case competitions; created a consumer-hardware startup in college; one of Texas A&M Supply Chain Department’s featured students

LEADERSHIP & ACTIVITIES

Capital Factor, Austin, Texas Mar. 2017 – Present Mentor, Largest Incubator and Active Investor in Texas

• Provided mentorship to local startups in areas such as product, customer acquisition, hiring, and financing strategy Foundation for CHOICE, Dallas, Texas Sep. 2017 – Aug. 2019 Board of Directors, Student Mentoring Non-Profit

• Business Partner Chair, with key focus on helping CHOICE get corporate partnerships. Utilized network in the DFW area to make key introductions and helped close business partnership agreements

• Helped design internship program for as part of an initiative to keep students involved in the summertime Dallas Committee on Foreign Relations, Dallas, Texas May 2018 – Apr. 2019 Member, International Affairs Organization

• Youngest member in a select group of 200 Dallas leaders engaged in non-partisan dialogue about global issues and international policies. DCFR hosts the likes of diplomats, military leaders, and researchers for their insights and discussions SKILLS & INTERESTS

Languages and International Experience: Fluent in Hindi. Travelled to over 16 countries. Raised in India, Thailand, UK, and US. Interests: Mountain Climbing and Hiking (trips in Andes, Himalayas, and Rockies), Reading, and Chess

Contact this candidate