Shomik Ghosh

Origin Story: In a couple sentences, how would you describe your path to becoming an investor?

I had a circuitous path, started off trading fixed income, then did tech M&A, venture debt, a marketplace/advisory startup, growth stage investing, and finally ended up at Boldstart, where we focus on enterprise software at the pre-product or early in product stage.
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Investment Approach: What are the key factors you consider when evaluating a founding team?

Have the founders lived the pain, depth of understanding of end user, vision of how product will change user's journey, ability to sell the long term vision
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What's your style and approach when it comes to working with founders post-investment? What are the characteristics of founders you've worked well with?

We are partners to the founders helping them become better leaders and helping them see around corners. We like engaging early in product so as to help shape the early team, choose the right design partners, and focus on the end user and product messaging to avoid pitfalls. Founders that we work well with have strongly held opinions but change their minds quickly when presented with well thought out advice. They are receptive to feedback and take time to consider decisions but after move quickly to execute and iterate.
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If I'm coming to pitch to you or your firm, what's the one piece of advice you'd give me?

Focus on the product and the end user pain that you're solving! Also, show us your opinionated view of the space you're targeting!
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How would you describe your own personal mission and values, and how do they impact the way you invest?

Have fun, conduct yourself with integrity, help others succeed, and be quick to act when someone/something is encroaching upon those values. This leads us to invest in founders with highly diverse backgrounds, styles, and characteristics and support them through good and bad times as long as they conduct themselves with integrity.
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What do you like best about investing in NYC, and what’s your outlook on the future of NYC tech?

NYC is the perfect bridge between the West Coast of North America and Europe. Also, many of the largest F500 customers are right next to our office which helps with early customers and when scaling. The future of NYC tech is extremely bright. The Kustomer acquisition is another win for the tech ecosystem and companies like Datadog, MongoDB, & Peloton continue to grow rapidly leading to more entrepreneurs, angel investors, and advisors to support a great startup ecosystem.