Throughout his 9 years as chief digital and expertise officer for JetBlue Airways, Eash Sundaram usually spoke of the way to “future-proof” the airline enterprise, which is notoriously liable to perilously skinny revenue margins and frequent bankruptcies.
For JetBlue, future-proofing meant diversifying past passenger flights by investing in journey and hospitality tech startups. So, when JetBlue Know-how Ventures launched in 2016, Sundaram took on a twin function as founder and chairman of the funding committee.
“JetBlue Ventures has now had 3 profitable exits in a five-year-old fund, which is an excellent consequence,” says Sundaram, referring to portfolio corporations that had been offered or issued IPOs. He retired from the airline final yr to focus on enterprise investing and function an working government at Tailwind Capital, a mid-market personal fairness agency. He serves on the boards of a number of different corporations as effectively, from startups to a $17B Fortune 200 international provide chain supplier.
His longtime affinity with the VC world, because it turned out, was future-proofing his personal profession technique.
“It’s so rewarding and inspirational to work with these early-stage startup founders. You’re feeling so fortunate to be a part of their dream,” Sundaram says of this subsequent chapter in his working life, which incorporates beginning his personal funding fund Utpata Ventures, named for the Sanskrit phrase for defying gravity and flying excessive.
I caught up just lately with this CIO Corridor of Famer-turned-VC tech investor to speak about working with VCs and early-stage corporations, serving on public boards, and launching his personal funding fund.
Maryfran Johnson: Past serving as beta prospects for brand new tech merchandise, what advantages can CIOs convey to the world of VCs and tech traders?
Eash Sundaram: Many of the entrepreneurs I’ve met in startups aren’t as skilled in enterprise as a lot as they’re younger and energetic. They know easy methods to convey a giant thought to a sure level, however they will’t translate that into execution. When you’re inside as an investor, you convey experience on easy methods to scale up a product. You additionally convey a larger-company integration mindset, and as a technologist, you’ve been hands-on in delivering the form of IT success that fuels enterprise progress. There are such a lot of roles a CIO can play as an investor and a startup accelerator.
JetBlue Know-how Ventures has thrived since 2016, funding 40 startups and dealing with dozens of founders and entrepreneurs. What had been the largest classes you discovered throughout your 5 years as chairman of the board?
My No. 1 lesson discovered was that you simply’ve received to consider within the founder and the imaginative and prescient. You don’t change that imaginative and prescient, which is one thing many traders will attempt to do. Folks with cash aren’t all the time good! Entrepreneurs suppose out-of-the field, and your job is to mentor them to allow them to develop and scale the enterprise. We discovered that within the early days the place we tried to vary the scope of a product, and we shouldn’t have.
No. 2 lesson: Your job as an investor in a enterprise fund is to seek out alternatives to assist and to scale the corporate by leveraging your connections. Not each investor has the precise connections to assist an organization develop. VC sorts usually have extra slim networks. The distinctive alternative you’ve got as a CIO or CEO investor is to leverage your broader connections. For instance, we had a partnership ecosystem at JB Ventures. We may usher in different airways and hospitality manufacturers to have a look at our investments and make introductions to assist portfolio corporations scale up.
No. 3: Know if you’re able to be a shopper of your product or your funding. These younger corporations mature in a different way. In some circumstances, the merchandise we invested in will not be enterprise-ready for a very long time. Chances are you’ll suppose you wish to be first, however you don’t have to make use of all the things you put money into.
You additionally function a director on two public firm boards, one in every of them being SolarWinds, the community software program supplier so catastrophically hacked final yr. What was that have like?
I’m chairman of the cyber and expertise board committee, so I led the committee that assisted with the investigation. It was definitely a really painful six months. We had an excellent crew of Solarians and third-party specialists who guided the board by means of the course of the investigation. Below the management of our new CEO Sudhakar Ramakrishna, now we have made vital progress in strengthening our inside panorama, embracing “safe by design” product ideas, and driving vital enhancements in buyer satisfaction. We did that by being clear, offering them with the mandatory instruments to mitigate any dangers, and confidence in our capability to safe their infrastructure. The CEO (and his crew) rebuilt the entire platform in lower than a yr. SolarWinds buyer retention stays very excessive, which speaks so effectively of the best way the corporate dealt with the disaster.
What classes did you are taking away from the SolarWinds hack?
Folks suppose most cyber incidents are internally targeted, however in a linked world like ours, expertise goes so deeply into many elements of the group, the magnitude and breadth of a provide chain assault is far bigger than you’ll think about.
Probably the greatest outcomes from such incidents is the way it drives simplicity into your infrastructure. It’s important to keep present on software program upgrades and reduce contact factors. In case you have 5 techniques doing one factor, you retain solely the one. And you progress to the cloud, which supplies the next degree of sophistication and safety past what you possibly can handle your self.
What applied sciences are you investing in with your individual enterprise fund?
I invested in 7 startups final yr, in cybersecurity, conversational AI, B2B logistics, and new era cloud growth. Most of them are Sequence A degree corporations now.
You play a special function if you’re serious about beginning a enterprise fund. It’s large cash, so the selections you make are excessive influence. Angel funding is a most dangerous proposition, however I like investing in nice individuals—and I wish to be first!
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