Women in VC Spotlight: Q&A with Mercedes Bent, Partner at Lightspeed
Mercedes Bent, a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners focused on consumer, fintech, and edtech investments is making waves in the VC industry for her performance and commitment to helping people from diverse backgrounds break into the venture industry. In this Q&A with Republic Venture Fellow, Grace Lee, Mercedes highlights her journey to and in VC, what skills she thinks are valuable for investors, and what trends she’s seen in the industry.
On her personal journey
Could you share why you decided to make the pivot to VC from a traditional finance background and why Lightspeed?
I started my career in finance at Goldman Sachs and then economics at the Federal Reserve but got my first experience in start-ups as a product manager at the edtech startup General Assembly. After General Assembly, I headed to Stanford GSB, which is where I fell in love with venture investing. Having worked in edtech before going to GSB, I knew I wanted to invest in this area. Being at GSB definitely gave me access to VCs but I still had to give my 110% to even meet people at those firms by going to events and spending my free time meeting hundreds of investors. Those informal coffee chats were all setting me up for an opportunity that might have come my way later in the future, which was the case with Lightspeed. When Lightspeed Venture Partners talent partner Brian Kasser added me on Linkedin, I reached out and we started a process that landed me a position at Lightspeed.
How did you decide that going to business school was the right decision for you, and why did you decide to concurrently pursue a Master of Education with your MBA?
I'd always wanted to go to Stanford, so it was more about attending the institution and being in the Bay Area rather than going to business school. In terms of the concurrent Masters degree in Education, I had worked in edtech for 5 years leading up to Stanford and was excited to have a theoretical and academic understanding of a space I knew well from a company-builder perspective.
How do you define leadership, and how has this changed as you've advanced in your career?
I've distinguished between great managers and leaders over the last decade, and realized that great managers are not always greater leaders and vice versa. Leaders inspire others to follow them and achieve a mission together. Great managers coach individuals to achieve their potential in pursuit of the mission and vision, while the leader inspired people to go after the mission.
On investing & the venture industry
What is the most important part of building an investment thesis?
I'm not sure there is a most important part... but I do think having conviction in your thesis, yet being open to changing your thesis is important. You don’t want to over- follow your theses to the point that you miss out on other interesting investment opportunities or force yourself to invest in a company in a category because you already did the thesis. Also, thorough research is essential to ensure you haven't missed categories or subcategories. Otherwise, the thesis will be incomplete.
What is the most underrated skill that all great investors should have or strive for? Any that are specific to VC investors?
I think great investors know how to win competitive deals and show founders extreme empathy. During my first experience in VC at Owl Ventures, I identified many parts of the VC role. Those included the importance of a large personal network for diligence, winning deals, etc. And for that due diligence, it takes a lot of time because you have to reach out to many people, schedule calls, synthesize learnings... I recommend doing diligence on the phone and in person when possible because people will more likely share information on the phone. Knowing how to deliver and present valuation findings, and how to negotiate what goes into the financing docs and term sheets is also really important. Those are all part of learning how to win a competitive deal and showing the finder you also deeply care.
What are the biggest changes you’ve seen in the VC industry so far, and what changes do you think have yet to come?
Some of the biggest changes I’ve seen in the industry so far involve the rise of solo GPs (General Partners), enabled by sites like Angelist and crowd-funding sites like Republic! Others include exchanges like CartaX and influencers as investors such as TikTok stars. I'm not sure what is yet to come, but I think it will be more unbundling of VC as platforms like Republic, CartaX and others make individuals investing in private companies easier.
Want to learn more about Mercedes and her journey? Excited to dive into the fundamentals of angel investing and deal terms? Sign up below for Republic’s Startup Investing Masterclass and earn your wings as an angel investor.