Investor Highlight: Bain Capital and the Founder/Exec to VC Pipeline

The expression -- “those who can, do; those who can’t, teach” -- comes from the 1905 play "Man and Superman" by George Bernard Shaw. While the statement is contested given the great doers and teachers of the last 100+ years (e.g., Einstein, Marie Cure, J.K. Rowling), the sentiment can easily be applied to would-be or have-been founders and executives who wind up as venture capitalists and private equity partners. Once you’ve been on the pitching side of the table, the transition to the check-writing side isn’t too far a reach.

Bain Capital Ventures has proven this idea out in their recent hire of former Affirm executive Christina Melas-Kyriazi. Her experience working at the intersection of fintech and commerce at the buy-now, pay-later tech company will be of value to the team’s sourcing of seed and Series A investments. She previously worked for LinkedIn and GoFundMe before landing at Affirm and saw the company grow from 400 to 2,000 employees in short order. She then struck out on her own into angel investing because she loved the early days of product building. VC was the natural next step.

Bain Capital Ventures currently has over $9.2BN of assets under management and has renewed its focus on Series A deals. The firm's recent investments include Gradle, a developer tool software company out of San Francisco, and Socure, a digital identity verification company.