A member of ICEF master’s class of 2016, Valentina Zakirova went on to study the University of Berkeley (USA) VC Unlocked programme in startup management, which she completed in 2020, and currently serves as Venture Investment Director at SDVentures fund. Valentina features on Forbes 30 Under 30 long list 2022 in Finance and Investment category. In this interview, she tells about how she made it to the list.
About international education
I hold a bachelor honors degree from Finance Academy and went to Jean Moulin Lyon 3 University on an exchange programme in International Business. It was during my studies in France that I learned about ICEF – the first thing my classmates mentioned was the London School of Economics. What particularly impressed me was the reputation of LSE Career Services, a remarkable source of jobs for graduates.
When family reasons prevented me from going to LSE, ICEF proved the best option for concurrently obtaining two degrees, one from HSE and the other from LSE. I really liked studying for ICEF master’s degree in Financial Economics. It was the only programme I applied.
About starting out
While an ICEF student, I worked at Azurite Trading, where I engaged in metals market research, travelling between Moscow and London. My supervisor was Dmitry Kalachev, also an ICEF graduate. Dmitry was looking for analysts for the company’s office in London and he contacted ICEF Career Services for candidates. The fact that my supervisor and I were graduates of ICEF (even though we graduated in different years) did help us find a common language, facilitating workplace communication.
While many of my classmates at ICEF were looking for jobs in consulting or investment banking or had already started their careers, I was looking to be with venture firms.
I like VC because it requires as much of the knowledge of finance, economics and business as of soft skills, since a business venture builds on relationships. You come to know each and every founder well enough to introduce them to each other or acquire new interesting acquaintances through them.
I’d say working for a venture fund is a source of inspiring network activity. Communicating with people and being of use to them is what I always liked about the venture industry. Venture founders have that vibe; they have the energy that lets you know instantly they are inspired by their own ideas. When you talk to them, you feel that incredible vibe and get inspired, too.
About Valentina Zakirova
In 2015, Valentina joined Azurite Trading office in London as a metals market analyst.
The years between 2016 and 2018 saw Valentina on the post of senior investment analyst at Waarde Capital venture fund office in London. Valentina has been in charge of Venture and Private Equity at SDVentures since 2018. With her guidance as Venture Investment Director, SDVentures has invested in twenty-four venture capital funds and four private equity funds, including Khosla Ventures, NEA, Bain, TPG, among others.
What I also like about VC is that it always involves a certain amount of risk, keeping you on the edge of your seat and giving the excitement of waiting for the startup to work out right.
About the benefits of being an ICEF student
To me, ICEF has been a great source of understanding about the processes in microeconomics, macroeconomics, and corporate finance. It gave me a strong competitive advantage in the venture industry: I know how to set a startup on the right track and I can give some valuable advice as an expert on how to go on with it.
My advice to students who would like to be in venture industry is start building your ‘entrepreneurial network’ while you are students. Keep yourself updated on the business trends and venture capital news to advance your understanding of how venture funds can grow to get to the top of the competition. You need to stay curious about the world of investment. Follow the stories that appear in Bloomberg Technology and TechCrunch to keep yourselves constructively updated on key issues.
About working at SDVentures
There are currently about twenty projects under my management with investment coming directly from SDVentures. I am incredibly proud of Patreon, a unicorn worth more than $ 4 billion (Note: Unicorn is the term used in the venture capital industry to describe a startup company with a value of over $1 billion), as well as of Flo, a women's health app which approaches the status of a unicorn and has its worth recently estimated at $ 800 million. One more project, among other success stories that I have managed the investment in, is Grabr, started by an HSE graduate. And because SDVentures is an investor in twenty-five venture funds, I am able to see how these funds are positioned and what their investment targets are. I keep reporting and stay in touch with them on all issues.
About studying at Berkeley
My time as a student of the University of Berkeley (USA) VC Unlocked – the programme concentrating on venture investment – had given me the access to a network of venture industries in different countries. This has been the best outcome of my studies at Berkeley. As members of that network, we still keep in touch, investing and advising each other in parallel on various issues. One of my teachers there was Scott Kupor himself, who is an Investing Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z, the world’s largest venture capital investor with $28.2 billion in assets under management. I and Kupor once discussed the possibility of cooperation – that’s no small deal.
About Forbes rating and herself
I boast a unique experience in managing venture funds’ assets. I do not know of any venture that acts as an investor in as many funds (25) as SDVentures. This makes it a unique fund. Also, we have entered into some great deals by purchasing, and actively promoting, three online dating companies, which is a highly interesting task and has an impact on the market. To be able to make such weighty and successful deals at my age does have an inspiring, motivating effect. In all other respects, it obviously adds to high appraisal by external experts.
