1988: The VC firm Supporting Exceptional Founders on their Extraordinary Journeys

Itxaso Del Palacio, Partner of VC fund Notion Capital joins me on Tech Talks Daily. Notion is a European VC fund in the B2B SaaS and Cloud space with more than $700m in assets under management. Having made 80+ investments to date, the Notion team founded, built, and exited two highly successful SaaS businesses – Star and MessageLabs – and today invests exclusively in exceptional founders with the ambition to build global category leaders.

The fund's investments include Go-Cardless, Paddle, Currencycloud, and Tradeshift. Notion is also the founding fund of Included VC, the venture capital fellowship for individuals from diverse and overlooked communities from around the world. But I wanted to learn more about Itxaso's unconventional journey to the VC world, which includes a decade of classical ballet, working on the assembly line at DaimlerChrysler, a Masters in Engineering, and, ultimately, a PhD in Entrepreneurship. Once she turned her hand fully to VC investing, since 2010, she moved to London and has invested in more than a dozen businesses in the last 12 years. She has also taught entrepreneurship to around 2,000 students at University College London and Imperial College. And before joining Notion, she spearheaded the European launch of Microsoft Ventures and led investments in Onfido, Beamery, and Unbabel. In the episode, we discuss why there is no one route to entering the VC industry and how product-led growth will be the key to the expansion, explosion, and even domination of European software companies globally. Itxaso also shares what traits she looks for in founders and what the best founders do to blow away investors beyond their entrepreneurial vision.