Namek Zu’bi is the Co-Founder and a Managing Partner of Silicon Badia. A seasoned venture capitalist and a top quartile fund manager, Namek has personally led investments in over 70 different technology companies globally in over 15 different industries across all stages. He has worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs and has been involved in every step of the life cycle of a startup from launch to exit.
Prior to this, Namek was a Founding Principal at a global macro opportunistic fund based in NYC, focusing on early stage venture capital investments in the software, digital media, mobile, fintech and internet spaces. Namek started his career on Wall Street where he worked at Deutsche Bank AG and UBS AG building technology for their global market equities groups. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with honors and distinction from Carnegie Mellon University with a BS in Information Systems
I am a career VC and have been in the VC space out of NYC since 2009. Got a lucky start at a small fund back then (much different landscape then today!) and kept building a track record until I started my own firm and here we are!
Nimble and ability to adapt quickly. Grit and perseverance. Not short sighted/not trying to make a quick buck. Ability to hire and lead a team (I.e. make themselves "redundant" over time). Curious.
For now we don’t play a lead role so we are typically a very close “confidant” to the Founder and a good sounding board through all of the ups and downs (and specifically the downs). We are also very helpful with helping teams raise follow-on capital (80% follow-on rate across portfolio). We’ve worked with founders of all sizes, shapes and forms!
Don’t sugar coat tell it how it is including the risks/bad stuff. We hate pitches that are super polished.
I like to see good people win big. I’ve had the pleasure and fortune of going through this with many founders and it never gets old. For me it’s all about the founders and the journey.
When I started investing here in 2009 I loved how raw and pure the founders and opportunities were. Silicon Valley always had a layer of fluff around it but NYC was raw energy. We will see a lot of this today because it is in the DNA of this place. Outlook is very bright for this city and it has changed drastically since we started here!
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