Graham joined Lerer Hippeau from SoftBank Capital, where he focused primarily on early stage investments in mobile and Internet, with a particular interest in marketplaces. Prior to SoftBank Capital, Graham was an Associate at Polaris Partners and then helped lead digital strategy at Life Line Screening, a direct-to-consumer preventive health company backed by Polaris Partners. Graham is a graduate of Colby College and Columbia Business School.
I started in growth equity a couple years after graduating college and immediately fell in love with technology investing. I took a break to get some operating experience working for a D2C healthcare services business and have been part of the NYC venture ecosystem since 2014.
I look for a deep and authentic understanding of a market opportunity, and the ability to effectively communicate the story. I find that the strongest teams have both unique insights and the passion to get me more and more excited about an opportunity the deeper I go in diligence.
Transparency is critical. Given we’re investing so early, I find an open and transparent relationship helps to create both trust and valuable opportunity on both sides of the relationship.
I think it’s always valuable to have a specific goal in mind for what you want me (or any investor) to take away from the meeting. Given the limited time for an initial pitch, it helps to keep things focused whether it’s a conversational meeting or a more formal presentation.
The diversity of thought, talent and creativity makes NYC an incredible place to live and to invest. The energy and culture that makes NYC so special isn’t going away and there is still a ton of room for growth for the NYC tech ecosystem.