Dawn Capital

This summer, expert marketing executive Marina Hristova joined us for the latest session of our #DawnTalks portfolio series. With experience from Okta, AppDynamics, Salesforce, and Telerik, Marina shared valuable insights - here are some key themes: 1️⃣ Create the right strategy: Focus on "A Team" hires, long-term goals, efficient channels, and purposeful metrics to navigate the complexities of the CMO role. 2️⃣ Secure leadership buy-in: Get CEO and CFO support and investment for essential brand marketing alongside growth initiatives to build brand recognition early. 3️⃣ Avoid the "activity delivery trap": Report on impactful outcomes, not just successful activities, to ensure marketing's value is recognised alongside other functions. 4️⃣ Stay customer-centric: Understand clearly what customer needs you are solving and always align with sales to keep strategies relevant and effective. 5️⃣ Make your time count: With CMO tenure being typically the shortest of the C-suite - often less than 18 months - invest your time wisely and understand the evolving nature of the role. 6️⃣ Use GenAI thoughtfully: While GenAI can boost productivity, monitor its usage to maintain brand voice, authenticity and purposeful customer touchpoints. Stay tuned for the next DawnTalks session. 🎤 Cc: Chloe Dodson, Avalon Lee-Bacon

📢 Founders, researchers and operators 📢 On Wednesday, 25th September we’re bringing together industry experts to share the inside track on what’s next in GenAI. 🤖 Join us for two panels: the first exploring cutting-edge AI Agents from some of the most exciting founders in the space; followed by a conversation on buying and investing in GenAI with leaders in the corporate world. Featuring founders Dimitri Masin from Gradient Labs; Cogna’s Ben Peters; Anton Osika at Lovable and TitanML’s Meryem Arik; and Allie Gillon-Livesey, Head of GenAI Strategy at J.P. Morgan; Tara L. Waters, Former Partner and Global Chief Digital Officer at Ashurst and Kyle Redelinghuys, Head of Technology Innovation Europe at Visa. 🚪 Doors open at 6:00pm 🎙️ Panel discussions start at 6:30pm 🎟️ Don’t miss out! Register here: https://lnkd.in/eVVwXqgP

A big thank you to everyone who attended our Portfolio Summit—having you all there made it an unforgettable event 🌟 Special thanks to HSBC Innovation Banking for hosting us and thanks to Kieran Hill (20VC), Evgenia Plotnikova (Dawn Capital) and Alex Lim (IVP) who delivered a powerhouse session on Key Metrics for Securing Series A Funding. 🔑 Kenneth Harrell from Pharus led an engaging talk on Paths to Exit and Preparing for It—a topic close to every founder’s heart. 🚀 We’re thrilled to continue supporting our founders and building this incredible community together!

Keeping the best of 'old school' approaches whilst innovating was the focus at #techbbq for Josh Bell and Sander Janca-Jensen today, as they spoke about building a great business, entering new markets, and the future of fintech. Thank you to Anne Gaviola for the expert moderation and bringing in great questions from the crowd.

Excited to get grilled by the one and only Kieran Hill and in what great company - Alex Lim! PS if those are your metrics, join us on stage 🙃

🇩🇰 We’ll be at TechBBQ! Dawn GP Josh Bell will be on stage with Sander Janca-Jensen, Founder & CEO of Flatpay, to discuss ‘Old school versus Innovation - Which Fintechs Will Win in a Crowded SMB Retail Market?’ Moderated by Anne Gaviola, Global News Anchor & Reporter, the panel will explore how fintech is transforming customer and merchant experiences, reveal strategies for SMBs to compete with e-commerce giants, and share insights on future trends in retail tech and payments. 📅 11th September 🕒 10:30 AM 📍 Tech Stage Looking forward to seeing you there! 👋

🤔 What does it take to scale a globally leading tech startup from CEE? How do you make your product truly stand out, and build an exceptional team to drive growth? These were the questions discussed at our event, “Building Global Category Leaders from CEE” yesterday! Leading founders ioan iacob of FlowX.AI, Juraj Masar of Better Stack and Davor Tremac of Fonoa shared with CEE founders and operators their stories and insights on building from MVP to fully-fledged product, nurturing culture in hybrid and remote teams, expanding into the US market and the highs and lows of their journey so far. We were also joined by the VCs backing these companies - Dawn Capital, Day One Capital, KAYA VC and PortfoLion Capital Partners - sharing both what they look for in the next generation of champions and how they support founders scaling globally. 🚀 Thank you to everyone who joined us and made the event a success! 👏

The UK government has issued a call for evidence regarding the tax treatment of carried interest. Increasing tax on carry to income tax levels would hit the increasingly important, but still fledgling, UK venture capital sector disproportionally hard. The additional tax take from VCs from the mooted changes to the UK carried interest regime would at best, by Dawn's calculations, yield an additional £40-50m per year. Is that worth stifling the UK early stage investment landscape for? ‘UK’s Google’ - or more likely a UK founded, UK funded and UK built global AI giant - will not emerge backed by a Private Equity fund. The backing will come from Venture Capital - funds which take huge risks on promising start-ups. We see many fail, but the ones that succeed make up for it. Private Equity, by contrast, is all about financial and operational engineering (job losses) for short term gain. #UKGovernment #UKTaxReform #VentureCapital #PrivateEquity #UKInnovation #UKEntrepreneurship

👋 Join us next week for "How to Scale in Biotech." Alongside our friends at BACKED VC we are bringing together some of Europe's leading biotech experts for an evening of networking and insightful discussions on scaling in the industry. Hear from: Dr. Edwin Moses, Entrepreneur and Chair of the LabGenius Board, with deep expertise in pharmaceutical services and drug development. Emma Tinsely, CEO of Weatherden, who brings a wealth of experience in global clinical development, having previously played a key role in creating multiple biotech companies while working in VC. 🗓️ Wednesday, 4th September 2024 📍 London Register here 👉 https://lnkd.in/ek78F8vh