AUTM 'VCs Talk Back' - Cami Samuels (Venrock) and Bill Harrington (OUP) with Orin Herskowitz (Columbia)

In this audio interview, Columbia Technology Ventures’ Executive Director Orin Herskowitz interviews venture capitalists Bill Harrington (Managing Partner, Osage University Partners) and Cami Samuels (Partner, Venrock).  Originally scheduled as part of the AUTM March 2020 conference in San Diego, this rescheduled interview touches on some topics of keen interest to AUTM’s membership in these troubling times. 

• Minute 0: introductions by Bill and Cami, including overviews of their firms, their funds’ areas of interest, and how they became VCs in the first place
• Minute 10:00 - “Venture Investing in the Time of COVID”.  How has the pandemic changed the ways that VCs are managing their existing portfolios; doing diligence on new opportunities; how to determine where to allocate their cash; their ability to raise new funds from their LPs; whether they are looking for COVID-related investments.
• Minute 35:20 – “Geography is Destiny”. How does geography play a role in the deal sourcing and company location decisions VCs make; how can universities outside the coastal startup hubs get VCs to look at their deal

This interview was conducted via Zoom during social distancing, so please excuse the audio quality, background noise, and other glitches.  The next of these interviews, with VCs Deb Palistrant (4:59 Ventures) and Josh Resnick (RA Capital), will be released next week.