Your Window Into the Innovation Economy

A fireplace, a rocking chair, and a mild case of COVID — in other words, a quiet/quarantined moment to reflect on the numbers, people, and photos that shaped Waterman in 2021.

Remote work can make organizations more vulnerable to cyberattacks due to the security risks of an employee’s home (or coffee shop) network. This problem is expected to accelerate in a post-COVID world, with IoT cyberattacks alone forecasted to double by 2025. With the increase in remote work, the importance of low friction cybersecurity for organizations is at an all-time high.

Mark Edwards is a seasoned private equity executive who was an early investor in AV and has served on the investment committees of Green D Ventures and Spike Ventures since inception.

At the height of the global pandemic in 2020, every facet of the internet’s underlying infrastructure was pushed to its limit. Lockdowns and quarantines had pushed people onto the internet in record numbers, as doctor’s visits, work, and even happy hours were pushed online. Comcast reported an increase of 32% of its total traffic, with VOIP calls increasing by 212% from the same time in 2019. It became glaringly obvious to anyone whose video call was dropped or whose Netflix stream was left buffering indefinitely that the internet was buckling under the increased demand.

AVTV features Tango, a workflow intelligence software platform designed to create step-by-step documentation with screenshots, in seconds. AVTV videos feature Alumni Ventures’ portfolio companies sharing their stories and asks with our community.

Alumni Ventures has recently welcomed Lauren Kolodny as the newest member of our Board of Managers. Kolodny is an experienced venture capitalist and was an early collaborator, IC member, and investor in our Waterman Ventures fund (for the Brown community). We connected with Lauren to discuss her background, relationship with Alumni Ventures, and perspective on VC trends.

For many investors, venture capital is about pursuing investments that will provide outsized returns AND align their portfolios with their values or beliefs. Savvy investors know helping entrepreneurs bring about positive change in the world is not mutually exclusive with making smart investments. Many lucrative opportunities exist in spaces where underrepresented entrepreneurs are aiming to solve some of the world’s most pressing issues. It’s this thesis that drives Alumni Ventures’ Impact Fund — doing well and doing good. For an in-depth explanation of the fund and its outlook, we spoke with Alumni Ventures’ Chief Investment Officer Anton Simunovic.