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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.

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Gina Domizio started with Signia Venture Partners when the venture capital firm first launched in 2012. Now celebrating over a decade with the company, she is the Director of Operations and Partner Relations, and a standout figure in the VC community. 

Gina was always curious about finance, but “for a long time, I felt like I had no way to break into the industry,” she says. As a result, she began her career as a litigation paralegal in New York. When her firm opened a Palo Alto office in 1999, she moved to the Bay Area, where she managed their paralegal and attorney recruiting operations. 

After a decade, Gina left the legal industry and worked as a headhunter until the market crashed in 2008. When work for recruiters dried up in the recession, she pivoted to a position as an Executive Assistant for a San Francisco business and civic leader. It was then that a friend who was working for Signia’s founder, Rick Thompson, told her Rick was hiring. That was all the break Gina needed and she quickly found herself in the VC space she’d long been fascinated by.

At first, Gina served as Rick’s assistant, but when he decided to start the fund, gathering three partners and a CFO, her job quickly evolved to support the larger group.

“It was very exciting to be part of that world, learning the ins and outs of venture capital, being exposed to all sorts of start-ups and learning how to navigate that space,” she says.

Gregarious, fiercely loyal, and with a keen eye for detail, it was as if she was made for the role. As the fund grew, Gina was hungry for new experiences and took on more and more responsibility at Signia.

“You can give me anything and I can learn it and get it done, especially if I have great role models," she says. “I really never say no, and my job has evolved tremendously from where it started.” 

Gina is the only administrator at the firm. Her regular tasks include acting as the fund’s facilities manager and interfacing with all the various vendors and service providers.

She takes special interest in the accounting functions and Signia, and handles both accounts payable and receivable.

“This is one area where I get really focused on contributing, making sure that we’re not wasting any money. The purse strings are pretty tight,” she says winkingly.

Gina continues to fill her plate by helping oversee new hires and new vendor onboardings, as well as managing communications with the fund’s limited partners. She also organizes the firm’s capital calls and prepares quarterly reports in lockstep with the CFO. 

Before the pandemic, she was instrumental in organizing in-person events, including limited partner meetings, portfolio events, and celebrations that brought the entire team together. “I love to throw a good party,” she says. 

Gina appreciates that her position has provided her with the opportunity to learn. “The fact that my role has changed so much and I’ve been able to grow has been really important.” 

A team player who gets along with everyone, Gina is grateful to be surrounded by a group of colleagues she’s come to love and trust like family and who feel the same about her. “The partners have always trusted what I was doing, I've always felt heard, and if I had an opinion about a company or founders they would listen to me,” she says. “I feel like I can always speak up and be taken seriously.”

The team goes on an annual off-site retreat where they spend time playing games and doing team-building exercises like egg drops and blind obstacle courses. These activities help them build trust and reinforce the power of collaboration.

“The games really encompass what we're about, camaraderie and competitive spirit,” she says. “We also spend time sitting around talking about life, love and loss, getting down to who we are as people. It really does feel that we are connected in personal ways as well as through business.”

Gina studied journalism as an undergrad, and when not in the office, she pursues her interest in photography. As a lifelong volunteer, she gives back to her community by working as an advocate in the foster care system through the San Francisco Court Appointed Special Advocate (SFCASA) program. “I’ve always felt a need to work with people who need help,” she says. “And even though I occasionally have to miss work for court appointments, my bosses are excited I would want to do something like this.” Volunteers with SFCASA spend time mentoring children in the foster care system. They also work with the child’s family, caregivers, teachers, social workers and doctors to figure out ways to support the child’s best interests. 

As Gina looks to the future, she is excited to continue along her path of learning new skills and taking on more responsibilities, especially as she continues to work with the firm’s CFO. “Working with her closer over the last two years has been fantastic because it's opened up another side of VC, helping me understand the big picture,” she says.  

Here’s to Gina’s continued curiosity and dedication, as we wish her many more years of success!

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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 that vein, we’ve launched our LTO Member Spotlights, aimed to elevate the visibility of VC operator contributions to the venture ecosystem at large.