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Medha Agarwal
General Partner based in San Francisco, California
Medha Agarwal is a General Partner at defy.vc, a leading early-stage venture capital firm based in Woodside, California.23 She joined defy.vc in October 2023, bringing over seven years of venture capital expertise to the firm.1
Professional Background
Prior to joining defy.vc, Medha held several notable positions:
- Partner at Redpoint Ventures for 7 years and 2 months (September 2016 - October 2023)1
- Investor at Rough Draft Ventures (May 2015 - June 2016)1
- Associate at Javelin Venture Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners1
Investment Focus
Medha specializes in leading investments into companies from inception through Series A.2 Her areas of expertise include:
- Vertical SaaS
- Fintech
- Marketplaces
- Healthcare
Notable Investments
As an investor, Medha has led investments in several successful companies, including:
- Whatnot
- Tend
- Proper Finance
- LiveKit
- BIOAGE Labs1
Entrepreneurial Experience
Before her venture capital career, Medha co-founded and built two companies:
- Roomidex
- skedge.me2
Education and Early Career
- Harvard Business School graduate1
- Started her career as an Associate Consultant at Bain & Company (September 2010 - June 2012)1
Medha Agarwal's addition to defy.vc as General Partner coincided with the launch of the firm's $300M Fund III, demonstrating the firm's commitment to backing extraordinary early-stage founders.3
Highlights
It was an absolute pleasure speaking with Winnie da Silva for the latest episode of her podcast, Transformative Leadership Conversations.
The title, "Dream Big, Iterate Fast" beautifully reflects what we discussed and the essence of how I view successful company building. Founders have to dream the dream while simultaneously learning fast and iterating accordingly to get there.
A few others topics that came up:
💡 The Pitch Shift That Works – Why some founders may undersell their vision without realizing it and how simple shifts in storytelling can make all the difference
🏗️ How to Pick the Right Startup to Join – Why choosing the right founder and team matters more than your initial role
🚀 Investing in Female Founders – Why women make exceptional CEOs and how they can sometimes undersell their vision
🏆 Lessons from Rowing & Leadership – What I've learned from rowing about choosing the right team, adapting in fast-moving startups, pushing past perceived limits and other leadership lessons I've carried from the water to VC
👀 Why I Hate the Spotlight – Just like my discomfort posting about this conversation, I'd prefer talking about my founders and being behind the scenes
🎧 Tune in via the link below or on your podcast platform of choice for our full conversation.
cc: @defyvc
Another @TechCrunch #Disrupt in the books! Thanks to the organizers, my partner @bmrothenberg, & all the founders that attended for the great conversation and questions.
The conference was buzzing and it was fun to run into friends new and old. SF is definitely back!
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