Doing early-stage investing with empathy with Rebecka Löthman Rydå, Investment Director at Inventure

Explore the world of early-stage venture capital with Rebecca, an investment director at a Nordic-Baltic fund. Delve into her journey, leading with empathy in deal-making.

Patricia Borlovan

Jan 06, 2024

Transcript

Join us for another episode of the NEUVC series which is dedicated to those embarking on their journey in the VC. In this episode, Freddie Macpherson, analyst at Isomer Capital, and Linda Võeras, associate at Karma Ventures, are joined by Rebecka Löthman Rydå, Investment Director at Inventure.

Inventure is a Nordic-Baltic a generalist venture capital fund focused on early-stage investing. Rebecka has been an investor for almost nine years and ended up in venture a little bit by accident and staying because she simply couldn’t see herself anywhere else.

Her true passion is all things related to software, AI data, and nerdy stuff. A little bit of deep tech and clean tech, when possible.

Scroll on ⏬ For the chapters & core learnings 🧠

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Chapters:

00:00:00 - Rebecka’s journey into venture
00:04:55 - The balance of trust and empathy in deal making
00:09:50 - The deal evaluation process
00:14:34 - Building trust and balancing relationships
00:19:32 - Key skills in deal making
00:24:40 - Negotiating ownership and capital Needs
00:29:42 - Staying true to portfolio strategy
00:34:45 - Becoming a great investor through curiosity and deep diving
00:40:04 - The importance of staying focused and being Open
00:45:13 - VC funding in the music industry.

Q: What skills have been crucial for your day-to-day activity?

Know what you don’t know.

Early on, don’t fool yourself of knowing too much. Stay open and have a curious mind, to everything you meet.

Be kind.

Meet people with kindness and empathy, even when you are doing cold outbound.

Stay focused.

As an investor, you often find yourself having to jump between 20 different things. One minute you are discussing with a founder a difficult internal topic, and the next one you have another founder building a space tech solution.
Often times, we need to make the switch and really focus on the conversation, to be able to understand the company, the solution, and everything in-between.

Don’t forget to dream.

Don’t be too scared early on.
It’s hard what we do, yes. But don’t let yourself caught over analyzing only the risks. Sometimes, we also let ourselves dream, and see what that company can become.
The longer you spend time in this industry, the more bias you acquire. And the harder it is to stay away from being cynical.
That’s why you need to stay curious and drop your hierarchy. Listen, even to your interns. Give them the courage to speak! Sometimes, a bold idea is coming from those quiet minds.