Unveiling the Insights of Dr. Steve Goldberg: A Journey Through Tech Investing and Innovation
I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Steve Goldberg, a Partner at Finistere Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund focused on the food and agricultural ecosystems. With a rich background in engineering and extensive experience as a CEO, Steve has made significant contributions to the tech startup landscape. He previously held positions at renowned companies such as Venrock, Nokia, Cylink Corporation, Trimble Navigation, and Hewlett Packard.
Throughout his career, Steve has been involved in investments in connectivity, M2M/Internet of Things, security, robotics, and embedded systems. Currently serving as a board director for companies like CropX, Taranis (Observer), Growers Edge, and Backbar, he also holds the position of Chairman of the Human Resources and Compensation Committee at Solid Power. Moreover, Steve serves as a company advisor to Alcatraz.ai, Bruviti, and Accern. His past board seats include Lucid Motors, Quantenna, Canesta, Kineto Wireless, Newport Media, and Teranetics.
Steve’s academic background includes a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Washington University, St. Louis, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
How did you break into tech investing?
After 20 years as a practicing engineer, I made a conscious decision to move into management. I worked my way up to a number of senior positions at larger companies, including VP of Engineering and a Division General Manager. While serving as GM of a public company, Cylink, I was sought out by the VC community and offered a CEO position at an early-stage wireless company. I would later go on to be a CEO at several other startups. The VC firm, Venrock had been an investor in one of these startups, and the partners later asked me to join their firm. After 11 years at Venrock, I joined Finistere Ventures, led by Spencer Maughan, one of my former Venrock colleagues.
What is it that excites you about investing?
I’ve always had a thirst for learning and innovation. The opportunity to interact, on a daily basis, with talented entrepreneurs, and learning about their companies and technology developments, never gets boring. Venture Capital investing, over long time periods, is very much tied to personal relationships. Over the past 13+ years I have truly enjoyed relationship building and being a part of the quest to create large, successful companies.
What has been your biggest challenge when it comes to finding the “right deals”?
More often than not, venture capital funding decisions are based on a wide variety of factors; fund size, company stage, management experience, market activity, competitive landscape, business model, regulatory environment, company valuation, etc. Finding the “right deals”, for a given VC firm, is very much like finding a missing piece in a large jigsaw puzzle. We look at dozens of companies to find one to invest in. It’s hard to say “no thank you” to the ones that don’t fit.
What major trends do you expect to see in technology innovation over the next 5 years that excites you?
I think the current, rapid movement of machine learning and artificial intelligence technology will be as significant as the arrival of the Internet. I believe that we are still in the early stages of this market. It’s hard to say just how much the technology will impact the world but it’s likely to be extremely significant.
If you had to share, “words of wisdom,” with a Founder who’s about to start their own startup, what would they be?
Simple. Find your passion and stick with it. Building a company takes many years, a lot of money, and, most importantly, perseverance. Without passion, it will be hard to finish the journey. Stated more positively, persistence and passion rule the day!
How can our readers follow you on social media?
I’m on LinkedIn and easy to reach.
This was very insightful. Thank you so much for joining us!
