From Operator To VC with Cleo Sham

In today’s 40 Minute Mentor episode, we’re joined by our very own JBM SOS Board Advisor, Partner at Stride.VC and former Director of Operations at Uber, Cleo Sham.

Cleo has had an incredible career, spanning from building Uber’s Guangzhou city business and team from the ground up to becoming Uber’s largest city business globally and the first city to reach 1 million weekly trips, to leading the sales, operations, strategy and marketing functions as Spotahome’s COO, and transitioning into VC as a Partner at Stride.VC.

Speaking to Cleo was an absolute joy and she shares so much great advice in this episode, including:

• The importance of not focusing on having the right or wrong answers as a COO but being decisive, and other crucial skills, any aspiring COOs should be adding to their toolbelt.

• How you can make the transition from being an Operator to VC – and how the skills gained in a high-growth Ops career can be very useful when assessing businesses to invest in.

• And what needs to be done, specifically in VC, including efforts from investors and Founders alike, to level the DE&I playing field.

Whether you’re an Operator looking to become an Investor, an aspiring COO, or a Founder looking for your next round of investment – you won’t want to miss the crucial advice Cleo shares in this episode.

And a special thank you to our sponsors for this Series – Chipper Cash. The team have been on an incredible journey, having launched their borderless way to send money across Africa and beyond, in 8 countries so far and are widely considered to be Africa’s most valuable Startup. To find out more, head over to their website, or tune into our 40 Minute Mentor episode with their Co-Founder and CEO, Ham Serunjogi.

Enjoyed this episode?

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode, so please leave us a review at https://ratethispodcast.com/40mm or get in touch at james@jbmc.co.uk

And if you want to find out more about Cleo, take a look at her LinkedIn profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/cleosham/

If you want to find out more about Stride.VC, head over to – https://stride.vc/

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