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Baris Aksoy
Early Stage Investor
Baris Aksoy is a General Partner at AV8 Ventures, a venture capital firm based in Palo Alto, California, which focuses on early-stage investments in sectors such as enterprise software, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and security. He has been with AV8 Ventures since 2019, contributing his extensive experience in technology and investment.
Professional Background
Before joining AV8 Ventures, Aksoy held significant roles at Google Cloud, where he was the Head of Global Strategic Business Development for the Media, Gaming, and Telecom sectors. His responsibilities included overseeing mergers and acquisitions and leading strategic initiatives within the industry.13 Prior to his tenure at Google, he served as the Chief Financial Officer at Anvato, a video streaming startup that was acquired by Google in 2016. Aksoy's career also includes a position as an investor at Intel Capital, where he focused on consumer and enterprise investments.43
Education and Early Career
Baris Aksoy holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Istanbul Technical University. Early in his career, he worked in product management and engineering roles at companies like Calix Networks and Alcatel.34
Investment Focus
At AV8 Ventures, Aksoy is particularly interested in working with product-focused technical founders and is known for his empathetic approach to investing. He aims to support startups that address challenges related to data management, cloud integration, and cybersecurity, especially in light of evolving privacy regulations.134
Notable Investments
Throughout his career, Aksoy has invested in a variety of startups, including Monese, Elucidate, and Hydrolix, among others. His investment strategy typically ranges from $500,000 to $5 million, with a sweet spot around $2 million.23
Personal Insights
Aksoy is a Kauffman Fellow and emphasizes the importance of understanding the challenges faced by founders, which informs his investment philosophy. He is passionate about helping entrepreneurs navigate the complexities of building successful businesses.34
Highlights
💥 Thrilled to share that Embrace has partnered with Grafana Labs to redefine mobile observability with open source at the core!
In a huge milestone for the observability ecosystem, Embrace team has announced a GTM partnership alongside Grafana Labs, the preeminent leader shaking up the old guard of observability 💪
The collaboration enables full-stack observability with unparalleled visibility into mobile user experiences for SREs, DevOps, and mobile developers. With Embrace's product available to Grafana Labs Cloud customers, this modern, open-source, OpenTelemetry-based partnership will be a powerhouse 🚀
Learn more about the partnership here: https://lnkd.in/gQ4tMNNQ
cc Eric Futoran Andrew Tunall Molly Moriarty Praveena Khatri James Elliott
#observability #devops #sre #mobiledevelopment #opentelemetry #o11y #startups
RSA 2024 Takeaway: AI or Die 🥵
Met dozens of CISOs, execs & founders at RSA this week. Quick observations:
1️⃣ Every vendor is AI-fying their pitch. They're leveraging AI/LLMs for various use cases - threat intelligence, SOC automation & more. Impressed by Google Cloud, CrowdStrike & Microsoft Azure security offerings with lots of LLM-powered automation across their stack 🤖
2️⃣ The other side of AI adoption? Security / Compliance / Safety. Many pitches around securing AI systems & data. AI safety will be a hot topic for a while. Congrats to Reality Defender Ben Colman for winning the RSA Conference Innovation Sandbox 👏
3️⃣ Enterprises are shifting towards unified security stacks driven by cost, simplicity & agility needs - EDR + ASPM + CNAPP + SIEM +...all-in-one. This'll trigger a new wave of acquisitions by major players like CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks, Zscaler, Wiz, SentinelOne. While there are many innovative exciting startups, I'm afraid most exits may be below $500M.
4️⃣ Critical infrastructure security is gaining more attention due to rising geopolitical threats. This is an urgent national security matter. I'm super proud to be an early investor in Eclypsium, Inc.. They are the MOST innovative critical infrastructure security platform for enterprises. 💪 (cc Yuriy Bulygin Alex Bazhaniuk)
5️⃣ Identity is the new perimeter. Loads of innovation here. A non-human identity layer is emerging rapidly. Cerby showcased many exciting product updates to secure new vulnerabilities in the identity stack. Watch this space 👀
Share if I miss others.
#RSAC2024 #cybersecurity #IAM #EDR #SIEM #CNAPP #ASPM #criticalinfrastructure #supplychainsecurity #ai #ml #llm #largelanguagemodels
