Seattle VC Profile: Sri Chandrasekar, Point72 Ventures

When I started Ascend in 2019, I realized even though I was o-l-d OLD, I had more in common with the folks in town who were earlier in their professional investing journeys than the venerable VC’s I’d pitched as a founder. I admire and respect the new wave of Seattle/Pacific Northwest venture capitalists, and thought it would be fun to profile some of our region’s up and coming VC talents in these pages. —KW

Sri Chandrasekar, Managing Partner at Point72 Ventures, is a builder at heart. And he’s quietly built a formidable career as a VC, having recently established a Seattle presence for multi-stage fund Point72. He’s a renaissance man and a great guy to grab a glass of wine with. Stoked to have him on the blog.

What made you decide to be a professional investor?

I stumbled into it. I always thought it was far more likely that I’d be a founder than an investor. But I had the opportunity to join In-Q-Tel (the strategic VC arm of the CIA and broader intelligence community) and that was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down. That job got me hooked – every day, I get to talk to people who quit their jobs to start something they are passionate about. There’s nothing more energizing than engaging with founders.

What did you do before becoming an investor and how does that benefit your founders?

I was an engineer, and still somewhat consider myself one. I spent the formative part of my career building systems for the US Military and Intelligence Community. In my role at In-Q-Tel, the closest analogue to what I did was probably a Technical Product Manager. And that’s what I bring to the table with our founders. I’ve built and shipped products. I’ve had hundreds of conversations with potential customers about their needs and turned that into product features. That experience translates to helping early-stage founders who are facing the same challenges.

Why should founders want you on their cap table?

We make every effort to support founders who want to go the distance. Because of our team, our experience, and our platform, we believe we are in a strong position to know what ‘good’ looks like from the earliest stages all the way to the public markets. We believe we have designed our fund to support scaling beyond just providing capital. We don’t want to lead your Series A and disappear. We pride ourselves on being value-additive investors.

How many new pitches (actual calls/zooms) do you take per month?

Talking to founders is in our DNA, so we do a ton of calls. We’re always happy to be available for exciting ideas.

How many new investments do you make per year?

Over the past three years, we have made, on average, 20-25 investments per year. Our full portfolio can be viewed at https://p72.vc/portfolio/

What's your sweet spot(s) in terms of check size, valuation, and vertical?

While we focus first on companies raising Seed and Series A capital, our capital is flexible, which gives us the ability to support our portfolio companies through subsequent rounds and find new opportunities with founders who are further along. We have teams investing in several verticals including deep tech, fintech, and enterprise software, and are always looking for bold ideas.

What one portfolio company do you want to hype for us here?

This is too hard! It’s like asking which child is your favorite…

What do you think the next ten years looks like for Seattle/Pacific Northwest startups?

I’m very bullish about the opportunity for PNW startups. I think there’s more technical talent here than almost anywhere else in the world. I’m particularly excited about Cloud, AI, and Space, because I see them all as areas where the Seattle ecosystem has the most expertise, and yet they’re all still in their infancy.