FROM DREAM TO REALITY: THE UNSTOPPABLE VENTURE JOURNEY OF URVASHI BAROOAH

THE VENTURE JOURNEY BEGINS

Urvashi Barooah knew that she wanted to get into the venture capital industry in 2015. That was all well and good. But then MBA programmes told her that she didn’t have a shot. Several times. When she seemed to think that was the end of the matter, someone would gently point out to her that VCs weren’t supposed to be breaking into anything. Barooah had an unrealistic dream. So she set out to try to achieve it anyway.

THE STEPPING STONES TO SUCCESS

Though Barooah suffered some early setbacks, what made her undeniable is that, instead of stumbling off into the sunset, she made her mark in venture capital. Starting as an associate with Redpoint, she was quickly promoted to a partner and now manages nearly half of the firm’s early investments from its $650 million ninth fund. Her continued rise through the company sums up her commitment to her dream and her belief in her path.

THE UNYIELDING PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE

Barooah didn’t get a shortcut to her goal. In a city and a country (India’s Guwahati) that’s proverbially far from Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial environment, she was culturally conditioned to aspire to do her own thing. Though the path through venture capital was hardly paved for her (nor was there a grandparent or other step-in role model to show her the way), the entrepreneurial bug that infected her through parents and teachers was the seed that growing knowledge eventually nurtured to fruition. As her success story shows, much of modern education is about approaching our aspirations not just with one goal in mind, but as a multi-stage bootstrapping pathway, and then having the will to walk that path.

COLD CALLS, INTERNSHIPS, AND THE PATH LESS TRAVELED

With that strategy in mind, she began cold-calling VCs, a bold move that has since secured her multiple internships and a role with Redpoint. To get there required a lot of determination, but also a great deal of creativity and initiative to think outside the box and make her own opportunities. It was her ability to overcome the obstacles that littered her self-declared trail to venture that brought her to Redpoint.

LESSONS FROM THE ENTREPRENEURIAL HOUSEHOLD

Instead, the entrepreneurial milieu Barooah grew up in gave her an impassioned identification with, and sympathy towards, the startups she invested in. Watching what her parents had gone through to build and run their businesses had given her a peculiar insight into the venture world: it’s as though she’d been there.

THE EXCITING ROAD AHEAD

Her current investor portfolio is filled with splashy startups she backed. Barooah found her footing as an investor by believing in her own vision and game-plan to make it happen – and that other people would too. She followed her dream, relentlessly, until it came true. That is the spirit of venture capital, and is what will keep Barooah going in her new position.

UNDERSTANDING THE JOURNEY

Urvashi Barooah’s journey in venture capital is as much a career path as it is a testament to what believing, persistence and perseverance can help in achieving something. Her story taps into the inherent human need to focus on the journey (made and not even completed yet) – that learning, adapting and persisting is important. Most of all, that in venture (and perhaps more importantly, in life) it is important to believe in things, even in the face of rejection and scepticism. Urvashi’s venture journey is a journey capturing not only her rise in the industry but also serves as a story that is empowering to the entrepreneur and VC-aspirant. That if you believe it, it’s not crazy.