VC Spotlight: IA Ventures
Roger Ehrenberg launched IA Venturesin 2010 in New York, long before "data-driven" became a boardroom buzzword. That first $0.25 million check wasn't about traction, it was a bet on grit, proprietary signal and raw vision. Ten years later, he's a repeat Forbes Midas List member who, before IA, seeded 40+ startups at IA Capital and ran DB Advisors at Deutsche Bank. That kind of resume doesn’t predict venture bravado. It demands it.
Brad Gillespie comes not from theory but elbow grease. As an early IA investor and operator he co-leads sourcing and diligence. Every meeting with him isn’t scripted, it’s interrogation with empathy. Jesse Beyroutey, who drives portfolio strategy, is the coach founders didn’t know they needed. Together, they’re IA’s iron triangle: three Managing Partners owning every deal, hands-on, no gatekeepers.
At IA, it was always about staying ahead of the setup. Pre-product. Pre-revenue. Pre-fit. Data-intensive software, proprietary pipelines, cloud-native builds, those were the secret passwords. With four funds closed, including a $160 million fourth, IA’s made 180+ early-stage bets and engineered 35+ exits. IPOs like Datadog, The Trade Desk, Wise, DigitalOcean; acquisitions like Flatiron Health and Recorded Future; plus private growth rides like Komodo Health and DataRobot.
This isn’t trend chasing. IA clocked the shift from batch to real-time analytics before Twitter was a verb. They foresaw AI/ML democratization before it hit every GitHub repo. They scoped threat intelligence before every CISO had it on speed-dial. Their edge? Proprietary deal flow cultivated at Columbia University, Michigan Ross and whisper-level summits. That network isn’t surface. It’s subterranean.
Founders aren’t hired, they’re sherlocked. IA hunts encyclopedic domain knowledge, scars-as-proof grit, coachable confidence, and those insight shards that bend markets. No handoffs after the check clears. They bring partner-level coaching, customer intros, GTM calls that feel like wake-up shots.
"Pre-product conviction" is IA's DNA. Every investment led by a Managing Partner. No silent partners. Fast response. Hard scale. Tight support when pressure peaks.
Beyond capital, IA mentors at Columbia Entrepreneurship and Michigan Ross, fuels diversity through curated dinners and under-represented founder summits. This is impact, minus the accelerator pablum.
The IA portfolio is hiring across engineering, product, data science and ops. Explore open roles on IA-backed career pages. If you’re building more on insight than launch metrics, IA Ventures might be the partner you didn’t realize you needed.
Datadog – https://careers.datadoghq.com/all-jobs/
Komodo Health – https://www.komodohealth.com/careers/
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