What makes Aydin Senkut a Global Shaker?
Aydin Senkut is the founder and managing partner of Felicis Ventures and an early backer of several top companies, such as Adyen, Credit Karma, Cruise, Fitbit, Rovio, Meraki, Shopify and Soundhound. Aydin has been a constant presence on the Forbes Midas List since 2013 and The New York Times/CB Insights Top 20 VCs List since 2016.
When looking for his next big investment, Aydin places great importance on the people behind the company. Instead of focusing on a particular business model, he looks for the right entrepreneurs and goes from there.
“Honestly the biggest thing…is establishing a relationship with the founders…we have even publicly committed to voting our shares with them”, he told The Huffington Post. “Instead of complaining or yelling at the founder [when the company isn’t doing well], we’re like, ‘You know what? We’ve also seen the same challenges with other companies…’ We get them over that hump, get them over that hurdle and nudge them into more positive thinking.”
Aydin is originally from Turkey and is competent in five languages: English, Turkish, German, French and Portuguese. He received a bachelor’s in business administration from Boston University, an MBA in Marketing from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s in international studies from the School of Arts at the University of Pennsylvania.
Aydin and his wife are associate founders of Singularity University, an organisation that offers educational and business incubator programs in emerging technologies. They have also supported bio-tech research at University of California at San Francisco and sponsored a scholarship at the University of Pennsylvania.
Tags: Investment and Funding, VCLast updated: May 16, 2019
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