Ashu Garg

Summary

In 2008, I joined Foundation Capital as a General Partner because I thought it would be a great opportunity to apply my lifelong learning of scaling organizations to help entrepreneurs succeed in achieving their vision. I get most excited about B2B/enterprise software. Like many of the partners at Foundation Capital, my background is as an operator. I’ve spent 15 years in a variety of roles that have taught me some important lessons . I’ve applied these lessons to being the type of board member who truly acts as a partner to the entrepreneurs by being a friend and supporter, but also a challenger, and through that, hopefully helping the founder to achieve their highest aspirations. I feel very privileged to be an early investor in Databricks (valued at $38B) and 6 other unicorns (Cohesity, Eightfold, Amperity, Turing, Anyscale and Alation). One of my high points as a VC was when one of my CEOs told me that he enjoys putting me in front of his entire team [in all hands meetings] because he felt it has a positive impact on internal motivation and in turn, the bottom line. I was so grateful to receive this kind of feedback because helping my portfolio companies succeed is my main goal as a VC. One way I realize this is through my unconditional commitment to stand by a founder’s side as we work together to make their company a success throughout all of the highs and lows a startup naturally experiences. One thing that I’ve learned through my operational experience is being able to really zoom in and focus on important issues that will improve a product or the overall user experience. I’m not really a fade-into-the-background kind of guy. What I mean by that is I am committed to delivering constructive feedback in a respectful way if I feel it will propel growth forward, even if it can get uncomfortable at times. However, I also believe I am good at knowing when to step aside and let the entrepreneur execute. Follow me @ashugarg