Friday, March 29, 2024

Terri Burns Makes History as Youngest and First Black Female Partner at Google Ventures

TERRI BURNS - GOOGLE VENTURES- TWITTER

*Meet Terri Burns… the younger and first Black female partner at GV, formerly known as Google Ventures. 

Burns joined the company in 2017 as a principal on the investing team, and has since made history by becoming partner.

“There’s a part of me that’s like, ‘It’s really great that we are moving into a space where different types of people — young people, folks of color — are getting a seat at the table and having lots of opportunities,'” she tells CNBC Make It.

“This is an exciting moment that I’m grateful for and looking forward to,” she says. “But I also feel like there is still a lot of work to be done and that’s something that I feel very dearly and take very seriously.”

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Heres more about Burns via MSN.com

After graduating from New York University with a bachelor’s degree in computer science in 2016, Burns set her sights on moving to Silicon Valley to work in tech. That same year, she landed a job at Twitter working as an associate product manager. During that time, she connected with a partner at GV who had worked in product management for many years and offered to give Burns more insight into the industry and their career journey.

“I ended up actually coming to GV a handful of times to learn more about product strategies,” Burns says. “And then at one point, the partner said, ‘Hey, we’re hiring for the investment team and you would be a great fit.'”

At the time, Burns knew very little about venture capital.

“Early on [at GV], a lot of my work really focused on helping to source deals and helping to support the partners in the work they were doing,” she says of her initial role as principal on the investing team. “There was a ton of mentorship and there was a lot of learning on my end, and then over the course of the last few years the scope of those responsibilities increased.”

Now, as partner on the investing team, Burns is responsible for adding to GV’s portfolio by writing checks to entrepreneurs. 

“I want to make sure that I always have a really diverse portfolio,” she says. “I love consumer companies. I love mobile companies, and I think I’ll probably look more into the Gen-Z market. I’m also really interested in enterprise companies and I think fintech is really fascinating, too.”

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