The EVCA leadership is dedicated to building community across and empowering the next generation of venture capitalists through an array of activities—from hosting events, knowledge sharing, and connecting others. This EVCA Leadership Spotlight Series is intended to help the broader community get to know what's going on behind the scenes at the EVCA, as well as highlight the valuable contributions of those individuals who make the EVCA possible. Accordingly, it's a great privilege for us to announce this EVCA Leadership Spotlight on our very own EVCA Growth Investment Vertical Lead, Russell Yue of Tru Arrow Partners.
Russell Yue is a Vice President on the investment team at Tru Arrow Partners in New York City. He focuses on late stage venture and growth investments in software, internet, and fintech. Prior to joining Tru Arrow, Russell was a growth investor with H.I.G. Capital and Greycroft. Earlier in his career, Russell worked in financial planning at Fastly.
EVCA: Could you explain more about what you do in your role as Growth Investment Vertical lead at EVCA?
Russell: As the growth investment vertical lead, I help manage the growth investment community of EVCA, which we broadly define as investors who focus on post-seed/Series A & B and beyond. Our vertical is slightly different from other EVCA verticals because our members don’t necessarily have a particular geographic focus or industry vertical focus. So we try to plan events that enable the widest audience to participate. During COVID lockdowns, we hosted a few Zoom events, and we’re looking forward to organizing other events in the future. We’re always open to recs if you have any ideas!
EVCA: What made you interested in taking a leadership role at EVCA?
Russell: I’m a big believer in the mission of EVCA to foster community and space for investors to connect. Getting started in the industry takes a lot of time ramping up on companies, business models, sectors, metrics, how to do diligence, etc. in additional to building up a network of fellow investors to regularly trade notes with. So I’m glad that EVCA has consolidated that process and made it easy to get up to speed on a lot of those areas, and it’s been a lot of fun getting to help support other investors during this process as a vertical lead.
EVCA: What's your favorite thing about working in venture capital and why? How about your least favorite thing and why?
Russell: I love partnering and working alongside entrepreneurs who are passionate about what they’re building. Their excitement and energy are what keep me motivated every day, and I get great satisfaction knowing that I’m doing everything in my power to help them succeed.
My least favorite part is passing on great companies and founders. It’s one of the toughest parts of the job. I have generally found that being as transparent and upfront as possible is the key to handling passes so that I don’t lead people on or hold up a process. I also usually try to provide a clear rationale for a pass that’s supported with concrete data/stats so that it’s constructive and helpful. If a company is too early or not a fit, I will try to refer the founder to earlier stage or relevant investors and continue to track the business for a subsequent round.
Interested in taking on an EVCA leadership role? The EVCA leadership is dedicated to empowering the next generation of VCs through an array of activities—running 40+ channels on from hosting events, knowledge sharing, and connecting others. If interested in pursuing an EVCA leadership role, click here.
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