Investing with Empathy With Mercedes Bent (Partner at LightSpeed Ventures)

MERCEDES BENT

Quote - “one of the biggest, most profound realization I've had is there is no life path that can be planned or followed.”

The Afropolitan Podcast spotlights Afropolitans who aren’t afraid to step into the unknown and walk in purpose. With this podcast we hope to empower Africans in the Diaspora to harness their full potential and contribute to the development of a bold and progressive black community.

Our guests will share their working formulas, the hard facts about leaving familiar terrain, embracing the unknown, and staying relevant afterwards.

This episode features Mercedes Bent, partner at Lightspeed, a venture capital firm based in the USA, with her focus on consumer investments in crypto.

Born in North Carolina and raised in California, Mercedes’ parents introduced her to web development at a young age and dinner table conversations were centered around the next invention. It’s no surprise Mercedes found herself working at startups in her early career as a Product Manager and later as a General Manager.

Mercedes’ path to VC is a true convergence of her life experiences, finance roles managing P&Ls at two consumer startups (including growing one from $2 to $100M in revenue), and her long-term goal of empowering communities she cares about.

A member of Lightspeed’s consumer and crypto investing team, Mercedes is primarily focused on investing in crypto, fintech, and other wealth-building and consumer products.

Listen and enjoy as Mercedes talks to us about venture capital.

Mercedes reading list
https://www.amazon.com/Anne-Green-Gables-Complete-8-Book/dp/0553609416 Anne of Green Gables by L.M Montgomery.

https://www.amazon.com/Singularity-Nearer-Ray-Kurzweil-ebook/dp/B08Y6FYJVY The Singularity Is Nearer by Ray Kurzweil

Show Notes
6:59 Journey to Venture Capital and Lightspeed
8:41 Evaluating startups
11:00 Common misconceptions about VC
12:40 Why Lightspeed
15:01 Covid’s impact on deal flow and personally
17:41 How the barrier can be broken for women trying to raise capital
21:25 First encounter with failure and lessons learned.
24:17 Advice to founders struggling to recruit and retain talent
28:24 Advice to people trying to break into VC
29:51 If the only thing left in the world was to read a book about your life, what will the title be
33:41 What does being Afropolitan mean to you



The Afropolitan Podcast is hosted by Eche Emole, co-founder of Afropolitan.
Listen and subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Jamit, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to learn more about Afropolitan?

Twitter - https://twitter.com/afropolitan
Website - https://www.afropolitan.io/
Afropolitan Community - https://linktr.ee/afropolitangroup