Connect with Laura

✉️ You can find me at [email protected]

VC Uncovered's View

Meet Laura

Original Responses (Lightly Edited for Clarity and Flow)

Background and Personal Journey

Experiences Shaping My Investment Approach
In college, I majored in biophysics and practically lived in the lab. While I realized a lifetime of scientific research wasn’t quite right for me, that mindset—observing, hypothesizing, experimenting—still defines my approach to venture capital. Startups themselves are constant experiments. Founders run tests, assess the data, and decide whether to double down or pivot. Companies that string together successful experiments grow into strong businesses; those whose experiments fail repeatedly often shut down or exit early.

Moment Inspiring Venture Capital Career
My first job after graduation was as a strategy consultant at Oliver Wyman, where I focused on large banks, insurers, and payment companies. I saw how the financial sector operates from every angle. Later, a bank hired me to innovate their payment offerings, which involved meeting all kinds of fintech startups. Talking with those founders—hearing how they challenged the status quo—made me realize I was drawn to their boldness and agility. That thrill starkly contrasted the risk-aversion and bureaucracy of big financial institutions. A mentor, who shared a Welsh football connection with Nigel Morris (QED’s managing partner), introduced me to QED, and that’s how I ended up in venture.

Balancing Intuition with Data
We do a ton of quantitative due diligence—everything from growth metrics and market size to detailed unit economics and financial KPIs. But data alone doesn’t close the loop. We also weigh qualitative factors like the founders’ mindset, the team’s chemistry, their pace of learning, and genuine customer enthusiasm. When the numbers and the softer signals point in the same direction, we find ourselves hitting true conviction. We’ve learned from experience that relying too heavily on just one side—data or intuition—can lead to mistakes.

Philosophy and Insights

Values When Working with Founders

I keep three main ideas in mind:

1. Pull, not push: Let founders guide where they want support rather than imposing it.

2. Move at startup speed: If the founders need something quickly, we aim to respond with the same urgency.

3. Empathy and transparency: We should be honest about what we can offer and try to understand the challenges founders face.

The Perfect Founder Pitch
I want to hear a clear story: What’s the opportunity, and how will the founder seize it? Why does this problem matter, and how is the founder uniquely connected? Show me a massive vision and a precise plan to stand out from competitors. And I need to know exactly how new capital will be used to scale efficiently. That combination of big-picture ambition and tactical clarity makes a pitch hard to ignore.

Measuring Success Beyond Returns
Our limited partners certainly care about fund performance, but other ways exist to measure success. Not every startup will IPO or be acquired for millions, which doesn’t make them a total failure. Companies can make a positive difference for their customers, drive innovation in their market, or create meaningful jobs for employees. On the VC side, we can promote equitable access to funding, offer real support to founders inside and outside our portfolios, and contribute thought leadership that pushes the industry forward. At QED, we aim to positively impact a billion lives through our portfolio—an aspiration tied to financial inclusion and broader impact.

Trends and Future Vision

Exciting Trends and Technologies
Because we specialize in fintech, I’ll focus on that area. The financial industry generates around $14 trillion in annual revenue globally, and fintech has only scratched the surface. More founders, capital, and infrastructure have made launching disruptive financial services startups easier than ever.

Of course, there’s AI. It’s reshaping nearly every sector, and finance is no exception. Whether talking about underwriting, financial analysis, or insurance, AI can often do the job faster and more accurately than humans. As automation expands, we expect a major shift in how traditional institutions approach their workforces. The question is not whether AI will reshape finance but how deeply and quickly.

Misconception About VCs
Many founders don’t realize that venture capital is only suitable for a small subset of businesses—those chasing large markets and positioned to grow at hyper speed. Great companies sometimes take VC money and end up hurting themselves because they’re not built for that model. VC math relies on a few massive wins to offset the losses; if you don’t fit that profile, venture capital can be more of a burden than a boon.

Challenges for Early-Stage Founders
Raising capital often feels like writing a novel where only one chapter at a time is funded. Each financing round hinges on whether investors remain excited enough to back the next stage. This can encourage short-term thinking instead of building a company with long-term staying power. VCs can help by offering guidance that prioritizes a robust storyline—an enduring thesis—rather than just checking boxes to get to the next chapter.