Guest

Lisa Calhoun

Managing Partner at Valor Ventures

Joining us in the Sky Lounge today is Lisa Calhoun, founding managing partner of Valor Ventures! Lisa shares her journey as a fourth-generation entrepreneur, the importance of relationships in venture capital, and her investment philosophy. She and Todd discuss the current state of the venture landscape, the impact of AI on startups, and advice for young entrepreneurs. Lisa shares her insights on navigating challenges in the industry and the transformative power of travel and personal growth. Growing up, working for her family's commercial print shop, cold-calling clients as a teenager, and witnessing the rise of the microcomputer revolution firsthand, Lisa's got a lot of experience with making things happen in the tech industry. She explains how those experiences shaped her investing philosophy at Valor, where she leads seed-stage AI and SaaS deals across the South. Lisa Calhoun is an experienced leader in venture capital. Lisa was recently named Atlanta Investor of the Year by Startup Atlanta and highlighted among Business Insider’s Top 30 Women Early-stage Investors in the U.S. She is the founder and managing partner of Valor Ventures, the South’s first woman-led, institutional venture capital firm, now investing its third fund. Valor’s portfolio employs just over 1,000 people and has a footprint across 25 countries.Under her leadership, Valor leverages a high performance portfolio of AI and SaaS software companies based in the South. Valor’s first checks into AI startups change the real world. Valor portfolio firms are helping guide major law firms (Visalaw); major city industrial cores around vehicle automation (Autonoma); US hospitals (AI genomics and mental health monitors); as well is on the front in Ukraine (AI drone intelligence). In Lisa’s board work, she is privy to multi-year trends and insights on issues including the pricing of enterprise AI, the corporate adoption curve of AI, the types of risks and analysis around AI and AI augmentation, and use cases now in the global Fortune 1000 around artificial intelligence. Investors who invest alongside or after Valor makes a significant early bet have included Draper, Bezos Expeditions, Blumberg, Goldman Sachs, Mackenzie Scott, Google, Mastercard, the Gates Foundation, S3, Lewis & Clark, and Open Prairie.Valor is also known for developing Vic, a visionary AI-powered investment management platform integrated with industry leaders like Salesforce, Carta, and PitchBook. Valor funds are backed by notable institutional investors as well as thoughtful private capital.Lisa is a Kauffman Fellow (Class 23), recipient of the Kauffman Fellows Leadership Award, and frequent keynote speaker. She’s spoken recently for NASDAQ, SuperReturn, KPMG, and the Kauffman Leadership Summit. Her insights have been featured in Forbes, Inc., and the Venture Capital Journal. She also shares insights as co-host and founder of the Atlanta Startup Podcast.Philanthropically, Lisa’s passion for discovering top investments from visionaries from all backgrounds led her to establish the Startup Runway Foundation in 2066, now the nation’s largest nonprofit (501c3) for introducing underrepresented founders to their first investors. Startup Runway is underwritten by leading nonprofit endeavors including individuals, the American Family Institute, NCR Foundation, Cox Enterprises, and the National Science Foundation. Startups from under-represented founders who have gone through the program have raised over $100M and counting.Prior to founding Valor in 2016, Lisa founded a digital marketing agency that was recognized by HubSpot as a top 10 firm for startups. She helped guide hundreds of founders to successful exits through developing meaningful sales funnels and communication platforms. Earlier in her career, Lisa specialized in enterprise IT software, consulting for leading IT departments from the Hartsfield Jackson Airport to UPS.Lisa holds an MBA in management science with a concentration in statistics from the University of Texas and a BA with honors from Baylor University, which she attended on National Merit Scholarship. Lisa recharges by spending time alone. Her hobbies include gardening and dressage. She’s a USDF Bronze Medalist and FEI competitor.CONTACT:https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisacalhoun/https://valor.vc/ I mean, it just, the stories that ran in our family about just get up and get on with it and get her done. It's really stood me in good stead and made me feel a certain resilience that I think people who don't have that entrepreneurial perspective, it's not as native to them.