San Francisco | Founder to Fund: The Journey from Building Companies to Backing Them
venue to be confirmed (Downtown SF)
What does it really mean to move from building companies to backing them?
Join LSE Generate for an intimate conversation with Dhruv Washishth, founding partner of Paradigm Shift Capital, exploring a career that spans operating on both sides of the table.
Dhruv has built companies in multiple contexts - raising venture capital in the Bay Area, bootstrapping a business overseas, and launching a founder-led venture fund after relocating to San Francisco. Drawing on those experiences, this session explores how perspective shifts when operators become investors, and what founders often misunderstand about capital, risk, and conviction.
Grounded in real decisions rather than frameworks, the conversation focuses on how conviction is formed in practice, why fundraising outcomes differ between founders, and how shifts such as AI, solo founding, and capital efficiency are reshaping expectations in the Bay Area.
Designed for founders, operators, and early-stage investors active in the Bay Area startup ecosystem. We'll follow with a drinks reception.
If you have any further questions, would like to bring a +1, or would like to work with us please contact Emma at [email protected]
LSE Generate is the award-winning centre for entrepreneurship at the London School of Economics. We support thousands of alum build their businesses globally, with the school producing over 25,000 entrepreneurs (more than any other UK university), including 26+ unicorns, such as Allbirds, Scalable Capital, OakNorth, and Lendable.
San Francisco is one of our 20 International Chapters & we will running more events here this year (stay tuned!)