When Urvashi Barooah applied to MBA programs in 2015, she focused her applications around her dream of becoming an entrepreneur. She was rejected from every school and told she was unrealistic about her business prospects – but she didn’t let that deter her.
Now, nine years later, Barooah, 33, is being promoted to partner at Redpoint. He joined the firm as a partner four years ago and has served as a principal since late 2021. Silicon Valley-based Redpoint is currently investing from its ninth fund of $650 million. Barooah is now one of the company’s three early-stage focused partners.
Barooah told TechCrunch that in some ways those business schools were right to tell her she was being unrealistic about her goals. She knew it would be difficult to break into the relatively small industry without a network or contacts in Silicon Valley, but she’s glad she didn’t listen to them.
“I didn’t panic, but it felt a bit impossible at one point,” Barooah said. “I got so far from it. I didn’t know the ground reality. I just knew what people wrote in the papers.”
Barooah grew up far from Silicon Valley in Guwahati, a small city by Indian standards located between Bhutan and Bangladesh. Both her parents had their own businesses. Her dad ran a chemical business, while her mom designed and sold furniture.
“My parents, growing up, asked me, ‘what kind of business do you want to start?’ This is what the most successful people in India did,” he said. “I was always encouraged to make my own way and start my own company. I thought about it for a long time but there was nothing that excited me. If there wasn’t an idea I was passionate about, the next best thing I could do was work with founders.”
In 2017, Barooah reapplied to business schools in the US after working as a consultant and had better luck. She landed a position at Wharton and said she made sure to take all her classes and extracurriculars to learn as much as she could about the business industry. He started talking to entrepreneurs, developing an investment thesis and wooing VCs to pitch it.
After about 50 cold calls, he landed an internship at New York-based Primary Venture Partners in 2019. He landed another at Redpoint shortly after and was able to turn that into a full-time role and has been there ever since.
Although growing up with entrepreneur parents didn’t introduce Barooah to venture capital, she believes her upbringing makes her a better VC. She said seeing their daily triumphs and failures helped show her how hard it is to run a business and how to roll with the punches when things go wrong.
“They always fought against the odds and did whatever was necessary to keep their business going,” Barooah said. “[They taught me] this idea that you have to keep moving forward against all odds and that it was supposed to be hard. If one of my companies has a setback, I know it’s just par for the course and something that can be overcome.”
Barooah’s portfolio includes Dune Analytics, an Ethereum-focused platform to make data accessible on-chain. Offchain Labs, a startup that helps companies scale with Ethereum. and The Rounds, a delivery service focused on sustainability, among other things. He has two new investments that have yet to be announced where he will take board seats.
Her early years as an investor taught her that the best VCs are flexible and willing to follow where the market tells them to go. She spent her early years backing blockchain and crypto companies, but now spends most of her time on vertical SaaS startups that use AI.
Barooah said she is excited to continue expanding her portfolio and looks forward to this new role as a partner and being there for founders when they need help.
“I started my venture journey four years ago and I knew nothing,” Barooah said. “In these four years, I have formed my judgment of what a good company is. It’s not something I’ve perfected by any means, but I have a few more hits than I did when I first came. That gives me more confidence to take more contrarian bets, and in VC it’s about believing in things that no one else believes in and being right.”
