Margaret Roth Falzon of Squadra
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In venture capital, much attention is paid to the work it takes to find the next great deal. However, leaders of portfolio operations and platform teams would argue it’s the empathy and understanding of the entrepreneurial journey that truly helps build the next great company.
When a VC investor is also a founder-operator, having real-world experience as an early team member at a startup and a knack for moving quickly to seize on growth opportunities creates a winning combination.
Founder-turned-investor Margaret Falzon, COO of Squadra Ventures, exemplifies this profile. She brings her experience of taking startups from 0-to-1 and the operational expertise of building companies from scratch to her role at Squadra. Margaret is keenly aware that the style of support a venture capital firm provides its portfolio companies—via platform teams aiming to build alongside founders—can positively and rapidly shape a startup’s future for the better.
Squadra Ventures invests in early-stage cyber and national security companies, an area where Margaret gained experience while serving in many roles as the Co-Founder of Yet Analytics, a data interoperability and analytics company. Looking back on her challenges as a startup founder and her experience with venture capitalists, she realized the critical value of having investors who build alongside portfolio companies and grow relationships that last throughout a company's lifecycle. Now, three and a half years after joining Squadra, she is a board member and observer for many companies in the fund’s portfolio and leads the firm’s post-investment strategy. As Squadra’s COO and Head of Portfolio Operations, she applies growth-stage thinking to seed-stage businesses and works with founders to develop the leadership capacity of their teams.
As a founder, Margaret built the systems that help small teams achieve big goals while demonstrating the leadership and grit that are crucial to turn a big vision into a company operating on all cylinders. She brought that same balance of care for people and commitment to process to Squadra, and embodies how we are reshaping how early-stage investors accelerate companies that win.”
– Guy Filippelli, Managing Partner, Squadra Ventures
Margaret has a long history of community engagement in her hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. It was ultimately through connections she made in Baltimore’s local tech circles that she found herself on the other side of the table, working with Guy Filippelli, a fellow entrepreneur who was raising a venture capital fund following the exit of cybersecurity company Red Owl Analytics.
Margaret joined as employee number 3, just after investment number 3. The fund has now grown to fifteen employees, of which Margaret manages five, all solely focused on founder team success.
“As you think about funds and roles you want to be in, if you want to move up and be influential, you have to be mission aligned with what the fund invests in.”
– MARGARET FALZON
In managing Squadra’s internal operations, Margaret applies the same road mapping rigor she’d expect from founders at a startup trying to find product market fit. She recalls the first few years at Squadra were all about setting up processes and establishing what the firm would stand for — “what’s our unique value proposition, why do entrepreneurs choose us, and why do we choose certain entrepreneurs.”
The result of that collaborative work was a refined thesis in cyber and national security where the fund was excited to write $3-5M checks and roll up its sleeves to help founders make their first 100 decisions and set a foundation for early success – including recognizing that getting ahead of diversity and operational debt is just as important (and as real!) as tech debt.
Overall, the team seeks to improve operational efficiency, introduce an enterprise mindset, and accelerate the go-to-market strategy for teams that are often led by first-time founders. Margaret focuses her team at Squadra on the execution of strategic projects that most small startup founders/teams often can’t resource themselves for or don’t have the operational experience (yet!) to do correctly. By working on early activity and processes in revenue operations, talent infrastructure, brand development, public relations, marketing strategy, and culture building, the portfolio operations team at Squadra helps founders focus and amplify their efforts. Using a scaffolded approach to this work allows the Squadra team to transition responsibilities and next steps to full-time team members within the startup after just 3-6 months.
Squadra also emphasizes embedding the value of mentorship and coaching within the C-suite/leadership team. Building leadership capacity is proven to accelerate people’s overall capacity, yet it is often the least resourced by startups.
“As a partner to a visionary, we think about what is most important, what can we achieve now, what is most important for our founders and management teams today – knowing that we are always planning 18 months ahead.”
– MARGARET FALZON
Staying on top of so many responsibilities both within the fund and amongst the portfolio is a tall order. Thankfully, Margaret can draw on her superpower as an empath and an extrovert. A thread throughout her life has been helping people, and she finds herself extremely in tune with other people’s feelings and emotions. She activates these superpowers to positively influence others on their level, both when they are ready and right before they know they need to be ready. In this way, she allows people to find the answers for themselves.
“Nothing is more draining and lonely, and at the same time invigorating, than being a founder. You have to remember that everything in this business is about people trying to do impossible things. Things that they didn’t know they had it in them to achieve. That’s where I start everything from.”
– MARGARET FALZON
Margaret brings the systems and operational mindset that small teams need to achieve big goals. She also actively models the leadership and grit that are crucial to turning a vision into a real, live company operating on all cylinders. Margaret's beautiful balance of care for people and commitment to process makes her an immense asset to the venture capital landscape and serves as a driving force behind Squadra Ventures’ success (and every company they invest in!).
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Let’s Talk Ops (LTO) is a community of first-class operators powering some of the most successful venture capital firms in the world from behind the scenes. We provide connective tissue, mentorship, and tactical support to help members execute at top form across the many verticals they manage inside their funds. LTO also provides high-powered professional development to assist members with career navigation and to ensure the best talent stays in venture. As such, we’ve launched our LTO Member Spotlights, aimed to elevate the visibility of VC operator contributions to the venture ecosystem at large.