Episode 333 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Geri Kirilova, Managing Partner at Laconia. From what I’ve seen, it is very rare for someone to start their career in venture and continue to progress up the ranks. Usually, an Associate or Senior Associate will do a rotation for 2-3 years and then move on to a portfolio company, maybe start a company, or do something else. For Geri, outside of a stop at Techstars, the path to venture capital started when she was at NYU as an intern for VC firms including Laconia. Fast forward to today, she is a Managing Partner at the firm and has been recognized by Forbes as a 30 Under 30 recipient. Laconia leads investments in pre-seed and seed stage B2B software companies with a focus around supporting founders in the early days in terms of sales acceleration, operational execution, and capital strategy. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Advice on building a career in venture capital. * Why she chose NYU and the details of her experience while in college as an operator. * A masterclass on how to build your network and lots of really useful tips on how to avoid the uneasy feeling that some people might have with networking at events. * How Laconia got started by David Arcara & Jeffrey Silverman, plus all the details on the firm. * Seed round funding benchmarks in the current market. * The unique due diligence process that Laconia runs which helps founders make potential customer introductions. * Details on Laconia’s internship and fellowship programs. * And so much more.