Solo-GP #2: David Yakobovitch, DataPower Ventures: Niching down a thesis on data-powered companies

"Solo-GP Series" ep. 2, with David Yakobovitch,
Solo-GP @ DataPower Ventures (datapower.vc) and
On Deck Angels Fellow.


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If you’d love to learn more about how to become a Solo-GP, look
for this upcoming series on Venture Notes (venturenotes.co) our
private newsletter where we will share the full episodes while we
just publish a 15min excerpt on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.


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Even more startup founders are onboarding in their captable non
traditional VC firms, in the form of Solo-GPs, via nano-funds or
syndicates.


Most of the time, these Solo-GPs are operators-investors, meaning
that they have a dual profile


on one hand their run their startups or are part of a
fast-growing startup as a key hire, and

on the other hand they are growing a deal flow and a
community of founders & LPs which allows them to raise a
nano-fund or develop a syndicate



Over the past 3 years, we have been witnessing this increasing
population of such Solo-GPs.


Still some operators with this potential profile have not
launched yet, for various reasons


they are unsure about their value-add

they are unsure about how to structure it

they are unsure about quality & repeatability of their
deal-flow…



... and many other questions.


That is why I am launching with the help of On
Deck a short series Called “Solo-GP Series” to help you
kickstart your thinking about becoming an operator-investor /
Solo-GP. In this short “Solo-GP Series” podcast series, you’ll
understand


how to identifyyou actually have a deal flow and how to
develop and nurture it the tipping point to launch as a Solo-GP

how to craft a compelling thesis

how to build an LP community …



… plus so much more.


I'm in the process of launching my solo-gp pre-seed fund, Olive
Capital, focusing on web3 European founders driving change in the
way we Create, Collaborate and Communicate.. If you are raising
fund, send us your deck! If you want to learn more, head to
olivecapital.vc.


In this second episode of the “Solo-GP Series”
podcast, we get to know David Yakobovitch, who lives a true
passion for data. David is also an On Deck Angel Fellow and a
Solo-GP: during the pandemic, David launched DataFrame Ventures
which invested in 20 data-driven companies. Now, David has
transformed DataFrame Ventures to DataPower Ventures, in a move
that puts a differentiated emphasis on Data that he explains in
this show. In this 4-part episode, David shares with us a greate
amount of insights and actionable pieces of advice while driving
us through


how & why he started a career in data and to develop a
unique understanding on the power of it

how he started investing, his initial source of dealflow

how he started to add value to the startups he has been
backing and a lot of examples of investments David has made in
the data space

how his thesis was becoming clearer along the way

why David decide to move away from an undifferentiated
data-driven focus to a specific data-powered focus and his 5
unique thematics David is focusing on

why shaping a thesis changes how you are perceived by the
founders community and the implication on the dealflow

the importance of building an LP community... + so much more.



I am sure you will love this episode, lets get right in.


-- These podcasts are produced by UPCOMINGVC upcoming.vc, created
and hosted by Raphael Grieco.