After spending a decade as an entrepreneur, Vani Kola turned Venture Capitalist in 2006 supporting world-class entrepreneurs in building their companies. Gaining perspectives on being both sides of the table, she feels she’s better able to empathize with founders. Sharing her biggest challenge as an entrepreneur, Kola says, “I am an engineer by training. When I started my first company, it was very hard to drop my engineer’s hat and don the business person’s hat. It took me a good year to nurture those skill-sets and build a real business with real customers and a strong sales operation.”
