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Andrew Sheffield

VC Principal @ Playfair

Andrew Sheffield is a VC Principal at Playfair Capital, a London-based venture capital firm investing at the pre-seed stage.14 He joined Playfair in August 2021 as a VC Analyst and was promoted to VC Associate in September 2022, before becoming a Principal.1

Andrew has a diverse background, including:

  1. Professional poker player from 2017 to 20201
  2. Business Development Executive at Neudata from 2020 to 20211
  3. Various internships in finance, including roles at Deutsche Bank, State Street, and Santander UK1

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics (International) with a First Class degree from the University of Leeds.1 Andrew also studied abroad at Simon Fraser University in 2017-2018.1

At Playfair, Andrew is involved in pre-seed investments across various sectors, including Future of Work, ClimateTech/CleanTech, and others.4 He also serves as a Board Observer for portfolio companies such as Kuai Commerce and Spotted Zebra.1

Andrew is active on social media, maintaining a presence on LinkedIn and Twitter (@AndrewSheff1).2 He occasionally shares insights about venture capital and Playfair's investment approach, such as his recent "reverse pitch" presentation at Pitchflix.3

Highlights

May 28 · linkedin

That’s a wrap on the most incredible trip to Shanghai 🇨🇳

Some other learnings from my trip:

🌇 Again, the scale. This time it was a beauty conference alongside the YASO team. A two day conference, visited by 500,000 people. Whilst I couldn’t get a photo of this (because it was hosted across 30 airport hangers), this is a conference with the same amount of people as Edinburgh.

💸 Consumer behaviour - payments. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING(!) is paid for using one of two apps - WeChat or Alipay. Even a street vendor like the one in the photo selling delicious steamed buns for 20p… No cash allowed!

📹 Consumer behaviour - social commerce! At the conference, most stalls were also live-streaming to huge audiences where they were selling products directly to consumers.

🥭 After spotting a store selling durian (the smelly, but delicious, fruit) Effie Chen pulled up a livestream with 26,000 viewers (!!!) all watching and buying durian products. The average home-attendance of my beloved Blackpool FC is about 10,000. We have a long way to go to compete with an audience size of the stink-fruit.

I finally get it. I now understand why YASO are signing a new brand every month to access the largest consumer market in the world. I’ve never been more bullish about the size of the opportunity they and their clients face and I feel lucky to be on the journey with them.

Thank you to team YASO for being such gracious hosts and showing me this city.

Let’s go YASO ✌🏻🚀

Adam Knight James Campbell 甘吉 Jonny Plein Sohail Shaikh Miriam Bray

Apr 30 · linkedin

I wish I'd known about Jumpstart when I started my career in tech

I definitely would have joined 🚀

Spending time with such an ambitious community gives me so much energy! Thank you Emilie Lauga and Matthew Sarre for the invite.

It was such a privilege to share a panel with some of the industry's finest: Fred Destin Ella Goldner (Levy) and Richard Serunjogi

If you're young and ambitious to make an impact in your work - I'd recommend reaching out to the team at Jumpstart!

Related Questions

What are some notable companies Andrew Sheffield has invested in at Playfair?
How did Andrew Sheffield transition from professional poker to venture capital?
What is Playfair's unique approach to pre-seed technology investing?
How does Andrew Sheffield's background in economics influence his investment strategy?
What are the key characteristics of the startups Playfair typically invests in?
Andrew Sheffield
Andrew Sheffield, photo 1
Andrew Sheffield, photo 2
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Location

London, England, United Kingdom