In this episode of Screaming In The Cloud, we're joined by Nancy Wang, Venture Partner at Felicis Ventures, who discusses her exciting career shift from AWS to venture capital. Nancy shares the role of a venture partner and her focus on investing in infrastructure, platforms, and security from an operational perspective. Corey and Nancy talk about primary investment and the impact of market trend cycles on venture capital. Nancy’s work with the U.S. State Department is also highlighted in this episode, which promotes global entrepreneurship, especially for women in challenging environments.

Show Highlights 

(00:00) - Introduction 

(02:00) - What a venture partner does 

(03:42) - Nancy shares how she differentiates herself in her role and experience 

(07:07) - Insights on selecting companies to invest In 

(09:18) - The differences between working at Amazon vs. the VC and startup world

(12:09) - Investing in infrastructure and security startups

(17:09) - The balance between supporting established services and investing In new  

(19:18) - Exploring how different sectors influence venture capital investments 

(23:50) - AI and current investment trends in shaping venture capital decisions

(26:06) - Timing of investments, and the concept of 'entry points' for success

(27:22) - Nancy shares her work with the state department 

(30:44) - Closing thoughts and where to find Nancy 

About Nancy: 

Nancy is a product & engineering executive, advisor, and investor with significant experience in cloud computing, cybersecurity, and SaaS. Nancy advises Fortune 10 companies on accelerating revenue growth, and she advises startups on attracting their first 100K enterprise customers. She is a Venture Partner with Felicis Ventures, where she invests in early-stage startups in cybersecurity, enterprise infrastructure, and B2B SaaS. Previously, Nancy was the Director of Product & Engineering and General Manager at Amazon Web Services, where she leads P&L, product, engineering, and design for its data protection and security businesses - and currently serves as the technical advisor to Commvault (NASDAQ: CVLT) on its Cyber Resilience Council. Prior to Amazon, she led SaaS product development at Rubrik, the fastest-growing enterprise software unicorn, and built healthdata.gov for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Excited to advance more women into technical roles, Nancy is the founder & board chair of Advancing Women in Tech, a global 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has already informed and educated 35,000 Coursera learners worldwide on how to get their first, or next, tech leadership role and partners with the U.S. State Department.

Links referenced: 

• Nancy’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wangnancy/
• Felicis Venture’s Website: https://www.felicis.com/

Sponsor:

• Panoptica Academy: https://panoptica.app/lastweekinaws