Jodi Sherman Jahic of Aligned Partners on why alignment with partners, LPs, and companies is powerful - Venture Unlocked 004

Jodi Sherman Jahic is a managing partner of Aligned Partners, a Silicon Valley-based venture fund investing in early-stage, enterprise technology companies that are have a lean toward capital efficiency.

Jodi has nearly 20 years of venture experience and started Aligned Partners in 2011 with her co-founder Susan Mason. A meticulous designer of market strategies and a fierce ally of entrepreneurial founders, Jodi is recognized for her thought leadership in go-to-market strategies. Aligned has raised a total of $125 million across three funds.

Prior to co-founding Aligned Partners, Jodi led the wireless sector for Voyager Capital and was co-founder and Managing Director of SCG, a pledge fund headquartered in San Francisco focusing on capital-efficient investments. 

Jodi was selected as an early Kauffman Fellow during her time at Battery Ventures. Previously, Jodi was on the founding team of three startups in North America and Europe, and she worked in the technology industry group at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). Jodi is co-author of a 2007 book on venture capital investing. She is also a proud founding member of All Raise, focusing on fostering gender diversity in venture capital and tech.

In this episode Jodi and I cover the following topics:

1. How working at larger funds motivated her to start a small fund focused on capital-efficient startups.

2. How she and her co-founder discovered that they’d work well together and how managers should think about partner selection

3. Her thoughts on portfolio construction and why they use a concentrated strategy.

4. The market incentives and social pressure to raise a large fund, and why they are committed to stay small.

5. Why it is critical to maintain transparent communication with LPs, and how they do it.

6. What could threaten the modest gains in gender equality in venture capital.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Aligned Partners

• Kauffman Fellows

• All Raise

I’d love to know what you took away from my conversations with Jodi; Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest, or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.