Ash & Brian Join LDV Capital For Our Two-Year Analyst Program
/We’ve been very fortunate over past summers to have had stellar people join us as Summer Analysts, Associates & Fellows. They have done incredible work helping us evaluate investment opportunities, supporting our portfolio companies as well as researching and writing our Insights reports.
Now, investing out of our third fund, we have decided to build out a more intensive 2-year Analyst program.
We were overwhelmed by the caliber of the 250+ candidates who applied to the opportunity. We carefully reviewed every application and learned some amazing things about the applicants in terms of the visual technologies they are most passionate about, the worst jobs they ever experienced, and their interest in joining our LDV team. Over 4 weeks of interviewing, the candidates were filtered down to 9 finalists - 44% women, 56% men - of which we selected 2 to join our team for the next two years.
We are thrilled to announce the addition of Brian Derickson and Ash Cleary to our LDV team.
Ash Cleary is a recent graduate of the NYU Stern School of Business, where he concentrated in finance and econometrics. Ash is a self-starter, as he managed equity and fixed income investment portfolios for New York-based clients. During his undergraduate studies, he co-founded a B2B SaaS startup called TimeSave (Mint for customer service). He is an avid reader of current tech, venture capital, and economic news. When he is not working, Ash can be found playing Australian football or chess as well as spending time outdoors.
When we asked Ash, what company or product powered by visual technology inspires him the most, he said, “I find Twitch inspiring because it directly relates to LDV Capital’s most recent insights report on content and the metaverse. Massive shifts are underway in content creation and tools for the creation, monetization, and moderation of that content, and this is perfectly exemplified by Twitch. As someone who enjoys spending their spare time watching live streaming every now and then, I feel inspired by how the creator economy will continue to evolve in the future.”
He is very excited by how the mental health space will be transformed by businesses powered by visual technologies. According to Ash, the use of devices to monitor our mental fitness and help individuals have greater control over their well-being is critical in the context of today’s society. “Expanding the mental health sector to healthcare more broadly, I believe the replacement of reactive healthcare strategies with predictive and proactive technology will greatly benefit society’s functioning and will accelerate an industry that is currently reliant on outdated methodologies. Finally, I look forward to the continued acceleration of how sports and visual tech intersect, and as questions surrounding how we interact with sports content in the future and how athletic technique is improved are answered.”
If you are building businesses powered by visual tech in one of the domains of mental health, healthcare, or sports, then please email Ash.
In his own words, “the decision to join LDV Capital was driven by a passion to be at the forefront of the future of artificial intelligence and the businesses that will revolutionize the way we solve problems and improve the world we live in as a society.
Entering into the world of venture capital offers me the potential to be actively involved in the sourcing and investing of transformative companies founded by incredibly talented individuals and teams. Not only is this an opportunity to enhance my understanding of the fundamentals for building successful businesses, but it’s also an opportunity to delve deeper into how the visual data our brains analyze is applied across the tech stack and how it is critical to all industries.
I am very excited to be working under the leadership and guidance of Abby & Evan, as well as with Peter, Kat & Brian”.
Brian Derickson graduated from the University of Michigan in 2015 with B.A. in General Studies, he opted to use his knack for problem-solving to lead operations at early-stage companies. Before joining LDV Capital, Brian was Head of Implementations at Matterhorn – a mobile app that allowed people to resolve their legal disputes without ever appearing in person. When he’s not studying the latest market trends, Brian loves to cook plant-based cuisines, visit museums and art galleries, or play basketball.
Unreal Engine – a free, 3D creation tool by Epic Games – inspires him to challenge himself creatively and has shown him how beneficial immersive tools can be for society. According to Brian, not only does it allow creators to build photo-realistic versions of themselves that embody their personality, hair, and the way they dress, but it also allows fashion brands such as Balenciaga the ability to offer immersive experiences or provide more realistic simulations for orthopedic surgeons. Old sayings such as “you can be whoever you want to be” or “the world is your oyster” don’t feel as cliché anymore with the tools that we have today.
When we asked him, what industries excite him the most, he said, “the last 12 months raised my awareness about how fragile the infrastructure that we rely on a daily basis is, so I’m very interested in smart cities and how the underlying technology can be used to revitalize our infrastructure, reduce CO2 emissions, and combat the effects of climate change in an affordable, non-disruptive way.
Digital Twins, the process of creating virtual replications of real-world entities such as bridges, automobiles, or planes, have shown to be effective in allowing businesses to predict problems before they happen, save them millions of dollars, and streamline production timelines”.
If you are an entrepreneur building a company leveraging immersive digital twin technology that can be used across multiple industries, connect with Brian.
In his own words, “I was drawn to LDV Capital because of our fund’s thesis – Investing in people building businesses powered by visual technology – is aligned with my beliefs for what type of businesses would be most valuable in the next 10-20 years. I also enjoyed having some of the most enlightening conversations with Evan and Abby during the interview process. I knew I wanted to learn venture capital under their leadership and help build the future of LDV Capital with a world-class team”.
