Hi everyone, David here!
I came to the conclusion that a 9 second Loom video, although on brand, didn’t feel like a sufficient intro to me and the things I will be working on at Point Nine. To help elaborate, I thought I would ask the P9 Team what other things they might want to know about me. So, here are some of the answers.. luckily there were only 9 ;)
Q — Tell us a bit about yourself
Wow, I thought you’d never ask ;). I’m Nigerian-Irish, born in Ibadan and raised in Carlow. At the age of 8, my parents gave me a toy microscope and I spent the years following terrorising the insects around me to get a closer look at them. Since then, I’ve been fascinated by science and all the things around me. I was born with a recessive genetic illness and so, I naturally funnelled my obsession with science towards genetics and understanding what was going on in my body.
Fast forward through my awkward teenage years and I left home to go to Dublin where I studied Human Genetics at Trinity College Dublin. About a year and a half into my degree, I co-founded a company in the MedTech space and had a fun journey learning all about the startup world but with a scientist’s lens on. After wrapping up my degree, I joined the epic team at Seedcamp on their internship program where I totally immersed myself in the European tech ecosystem and learned a lot about early stage investing. As I wrapped up my internship there, I was a lot more sure about what I wanted to do with the next few years of my life and that’s to support really cool people building really cool things. I’m excited to be here at Point Nine now where I can work with the P9 Family to take on the world.
Q — What’s your favourite part of working in Venture Capital
Having been a founder, my favourite thing is providing the little but key pieces of aid when our portfolio founders need it most. Christoph mentioned in his blog post that he was looking for an Associate who would work closely with him to not only spot outstanding companies but to also deliver a world-class service and I’m genuinely excited to do that.
Q — What should we expect from you at P9?
Alongside Christoph, I’ll also be looking at everything SaaS and hope to one day release a napkin! So if you’re a founder building anything software, anywhere in the world and want to raise funding, I’m all ears! With a background in the health space, I’ll also be looking at anything and everything that we get excited about in the overall space. Other than this, I plan to attend conferences and events across Europe, especially London and Berlin. I’m really excited to meet people in real life given, I’ve never worked in a non-remote world!
Q — Where should we expect to see you in 9 years?
I *love* the African tech ecosystem and the strides that have been made by some amazing founders and operators in the past 5 years have been inspiring to watch and read about. I’m super lucky to have a few friends who are building some extremely exciting companies in Nigeria, for example, and it’ll be thrilling to watch them execute on their vision for the future of the nation and continent as they tackle international expansion.
Being one of (sadly) few VCs of Black African origin, I hope to help support, mentor and work hand in hand with companies on the African continent as the ecosystem matures in regards to fundraising. Long-term my goal is to support the first African companies to truly compete on a global scale. How I will do that, when that will happen and with whom, are all questions I hope to have a more firm answer for you over the next few years. :)
Some quick-fire questions…
Q — What are some technologies or trends that get you excited at the moment?
Very basic of me but hear me out… NFTs! I think they could have an epic impact in gaming. As a self-proclaimed FIFA expert, I can only imagine how much I would be willing to spend on an NFT card for Messi that I could use across multiple iterations of FIFA Ultimate Team. Not sure how this would live alongside microtransactions. I think we’re starting to see some of the massive upside be taken advantage of (Sorare!!) but, I think there’s still so much tying of NFTs to applications left to be done and can’t wait to see what it looks like.
Q — If there’s one company you wish you’d been an early stage investor in, which one would it be?
Illumina! What an epic company, one that I think is undervalued because genetics will eat the medical world. ;)
Q — What are some of your favourite books?
I’m a huge fan of fantasy novels, so anything by Brandon Sanderson… I’m actually co-authoring one at the moment with a good friend but, similar to the Kanye album, there have been a *few* delays!
Q — Twitter or Instagram?
Instagram.
Q — London or Berlin?
Dublin. :)
