A practicing believer of Zen Buddhism’s Shoshin concept, Lavanya Ashok has always kept end eavored to keep a beginner’s mind as she has honed her skills as an investor over her career of sixteen years. She has kept Her natural curiosity and love for stories that helps her retain excitement in her work every day, even after sixteen years. ‘Women in Venture Capital’ will no longer be a strange concept come to life once you get to know this vibrant personality.

Give us sneak-peek into how the journey unfolded for Lavanya, from a studious young mind to leading Trifecta Capital’s equity investing business.

I was a very academically inclined child, with a deep love for creative expression. In my early years, I could be predictably found either studying, hiding in some corner of the house with my face buried in the pages of a delicious new novel or rehearsing on the dance floor.

My mother was a leading finance professional at a time when it was uncommon for women to aspire and achieve in realms beyond the domestic sphere. Being like her in many respects, it was assumed that I would follow the path she had blazed for me. But life is rarely so linear and I spent the early part of my youth rebelling against my ‘calling’ of finance and investing, wanting alternately to be a writer, a dancer, a doctor.

Eventually, my love for numbers and my early exposure to dinner-time discussions as a family on latest developments in a rapidly transforming Indian economy led me to Wharton for my undergraduate degree, where I had the privilege of studying with some of the finest professors and students from all over the world. I truly believe this was the pivotal phase of my career academic life and helped cement my enduring love for my chosen career in finance and investing.

Through a combination of hard work and serendipity, I got secureda summer internship in investment banking with Goldman Sachs in New York.

After a two year stint at Gold-man in NY, I moved across America to the fabled Silicon Valley, working for a hedge fund and get-ting my early training in investing before enrolling at Stanford for an MBA.

Post my MBA, I re-joined Gold-man as employee number three in the growth and private equity investing team in Mumbai. Over the decade I spent there, I gained invaluable exposure investing through cycles, shaping sector theses, building teams and delivering strong returns to our investors, working my way up from Associate to Managing Director at Trifecta.

Mid last year, the co-founders of Trifecta invited me to join their partnership and launcha new technology-focused equity fund. Currently, I lead our late-stage equity investing business at Trifecta Capital. In addition to primary infusions, our fund will also cater to the unmet needs of late-stage technology companies by providing off-cycle liquidity to early investors. I am responsible for all aspects of our business, working with our managing partners on team building, capital formation, investing and portfolio construction, monitoring portfolio companies and delivering exit outcomes to our investors.

“As important as the macro is to our business, focusing on the micro aspects of every company we invest in is equally critical”

Give us a brief overview of Trifecta Capital.

Trifecta Capital is India's leading alternate financing platform for startups across their life cycle, spanning venture debt and late stage venture capital. Having built a strong foundation in venture debt over the last six years, we are expanding the Trifecta Capital plat-form to address new investment opportunities arising in the maturing Indian technology ecosystem.

The decision to establish Trifecta in 2015 arose from a major gap in the market in availability of debt for new-age tech companies. Similarly, in 2021, while a lot of early and growth stage capital is available, with the late-stage equity fund we are filling a structural gap in the late-stage VC ecosystem in India.

Since you are part of an industry that constantly keeps evolving and is affected by various external market forces, how do you keep yourself well aligned with every change taking place within the industry?

I believe venture capital is a global asset class and I keep myself abreast of international trends in other mature and developing markets that could impact our business in India. I do this by following seasoned investors’ market commentary, primary research by engaging with market participants beyond the investor community, reading books and industry publications, and more recently listening to podcasts.

As important as the macro is to our business, focusing on the micro aspects of every company we invest in is equally critical. I love that first meeting with a new founder. It has all the excitement of a first date – just instead of putting on lipstick, I try my best to read extensively and find out everything I can about the founder and business beforehand. As Charlie Munger famously says, “Success comes to the prepared mind.”

What would your advice be to women looking to foray into the finance and investing industry?

We are in an industry where the big ideas and the minute details both hold enormous value. Thus, when you are putting your name on a piece of work, ensure it is of a quality that makes you proud. When I was young, my father told me this story of a Chinese carpenter who beautifully carved the front of a cabinet and then proceeded to painstakingly carve the back as well. When asked why he was expending such effort since no one would see it, the carpenter said he would know and that wais enough.

I am married to my childhood sweetheart and we have been blessed with adorable twin toddlers. With two careers and two small children, suffice it to say we coexist with chaos! Careers in finance can be extremely demanding and to lead a full life, there are daily difficult decisions and intricate jugglery that will ensue. I have learned through trial and error that that the key to juggling is to know that some of the balls you have in the air are made of rubber and some are made of glass – if you drop the rubber ones they bounce back unharmed but if you drop those pretty glass ones, you stand to face lasting damage. I am ruled by a large and growing to-do list, introspect of-ten with my husband about what is important for our family and our respective careers and we do our best to keep the glass mostly intact!

Finally, in the words of the inimitable Nobel laureate Toni Morrisson, “When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.”