Riffle Ventures is a climate tech venture investment firm and venture studio focused on scaling climate technology innovation. They have a strong focus on building climate tech innovation ecosystems and are committed to building these ecosystems with a dedicated focus on equity. I worked closely with Suma Reddy, co-founder of Riffle, on the first company they are building through their climate tech venture studio arm. The company, Gather Robotics, is an agriculture robotics company building an AI-powered robot that improves labor conditions for farm workers and decreases food waste on the farm.

I worked with Suma this summer to prepare a pre-seed round of fundraising for Gather Robotics. I built the financial models to determine the company’s future cash needs and helped translate this into business-development and fundraising targets. In addition to working on financials, I collaborated with Suma and the team designer to create the fundraising pitch deck aimed at impact investors. Serving as the project manager for the fundraising process, I helped streamline operations to ensure the team could accelerate the fundraising timeline and secure capital quickly.

In preparing the financial models for Gather’s pre-seed round, I applied the financial valuation and analysis skills gained through my MBA, using financial forecasting and cash flow analysis to assess the company's future capital needs. The concepts of business strategy and financial management learned at Columbia Business School (CBS), combined with the hard skills required to build a flexible financial model in excel were integral to my success in completing this project. I also applied these learnings from strategy courses and technical excel skills learned through valuation and business analytics assignments at CBS to develop a comprehensive breakeven analysis to understand how changes in the market can impact the customer’s “timeline to break even” when purchasing the product. This is essential work when selling a product to customers with thin margins such as farmers.

Business communication and strategy skills developed at CBS complemented my past experience in communications and helped me effectively collaborate with the Gather team to create an effective pitch for impact investors. These skills helped me make strategic decisions that shaped the deck to highlight key aspects of the company's value proposition, market potential and social impact. Serving as the project manager for the fundraising process drew on my leadership and organizational skills developed through group projects, club leadership, and leadership courses such as LEAD.

Working on the financial model and breakeven model were challenging and rewarding experiences. In previous projects, I worked on cases where complete financial information, clear company projections, and expectations were readily available. Working with a startup introduced additional layers of complexity due to a range of unknowns and uncertainties that are inherent to a company so early in its development. This required a more hands-on and creative approach, including collecting information from a range of internal and external stakeholders, including customers and investors, and supplementing this with independent research. A key additional challenge was building and working with the supporting models, such as an HR model for hiring plans and salary expectations, a bill of materials to understand costs of building the product, and use of funds model to understand fund allocation from a future round of fundraising. These supporting models are critical to creating a sound and flexible financial model for a young startup such as Gather, and working on these helped me gain a deeper understanding of company operations and growth strategy.

While I have worked at an impact-focused venture capital firm previously, this was my first time working with a venture firm that operates as a venture studio. I gained a deeper understanding of the relationship between venture studios and startups, both in the operational interactions and the complexities of contractually structuring the relationship. Bridging the gap between the studio and the startup was a valuable learning experience, particularly in understanding how studios can support startups to ensure a clear path to scale and investment while giving the team support and space to build an excellent product. Riffle’s focus at the intersection of climate equity, climate technology, and impact investment is a unique view on the sector. I worked in climate and technology for eight years prior to Business School, but have not worked with a firm with a similar mission and approach. This experience broadened my perspective on how equity considerations can be embedded into technological innovation, investment goals, and ecosystem building.