May 27, 2022
Itxaso Del Palacio, Partner of VC fund Notion Capital joins me on Tech Talks Daily. Notion is a European VC fund in the B2B SaaS and Cloud space with more than $700m in assets under management. Having made 80+ investments to date, the Notion team founded, built, and exited two highly successful SaaS businesses – Star and MessageLabs – and today invests exclusively in exceptional founders with the ambition to build global category leaders.
The fund's investments include Go-Cardless, Paddle,
Currencycloud, and Tradeshift. Notion is also the founding fund of
Included VC, the venture capital fellowship for individuals from
diverse and overlooked communities from around the world. But I
wanted to learn more about Itxaso's unconventional journey to the
VC world, which includes a decade of classical ballet, working on
the assembly line at DaimlerChrysler, a Masters in Engineering,
and, ultimately, a PhD in Entrepreneurship.
Once she turned her hand fully to VC investing, since 2010, she
moved to London and has invested in more than a dozen businesses in
the last 12 years. She has also taught entrepreneurship to around
2,000 students at University College London and Imperial College.
And before joining Notion, she spearheaded the European launch of
Microsoft Ventures and led investments in Onfido, Beamery, and
Unbabel.
In the episode, we discuss why there is no one route to entering
the VC industry and how product-led growth will be the key to the
expansion, explosion, and even domination of European software
companies globally. Itxaso also shares what traits she looks for in
founders and what the best founders do to blow away investors
beyond their entrepreneurial vision.