This is an episode of January Ventures’ Beyond the Cap Table podcast, hosted by Jennifer Neundorfer. We aim to demystify the various parts of venture capital and highlight founders, funders, and other game changers who are building new networks and enabling the new establishment in the startup and venture world. Listen to the show wherever you get your podcasts. In this episode, I interview Ed Zimmermann, venture lawyer at Lowenstein Sandler and Co-founder of First Close Partners, a fund of funds investing in underrepresented fund managers. Ed is a venture veteran who has spent his career supporting and championing founders and funders. In this candid and thoughtful conversation, Ed shares: His personal motivation for championing social justice and diversity, and how he brings that unique perspective to venture capital Why he started angel investing and what he has learned about investing from sitting on the legal side of VC How to approach building a diverse network with an open and prepared mind Why Ed started First Close Partners to help underrepresented fund managers get to “first close” and how the fund helps its partners evaluate underrepresented funders Why sharing fund-level returns data can help emerging fund managers understand expectations and communicate effectively with their LPs Ed Zimmerman chairs Lowenstein Sandler's Emerging Companies & Venture Capital practice (fka, The Tech Group), which he and Anthony Pergola co-founded in the 1990s. Ed has been a growth company, startup and venture/M&A lawyer for 30 years. Ed co-founded First Close Partners, which invests into venture funds owned and run by underrepresented managers across the world, and The Historic Fund (a nonprofit supporting Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs) by donating fully-funded LP interests in a portfolio of VC funds into HBCU endowments). Outside of First Close Partners, Ed has personally invested in 100+ VC funds and 150+ startups, predominantly in the US, Europe, and Africa. Ed serves as: an Adjunct Professor of VC at Columbia, on the Wall Street Journal’s Panel of Experts, founder/Chair of VentureCrush, Interim Chair of the Board of Center for Policing Equity, and a Board member at Fisk University, Black Women Talk Tech, The Orchid Foundation, and, previously, Harvey Mudd College. Ed was an adjunct professor of law at Rutgers Law School. Ed has served as an advisor on VC matters to the President of France. Ed also serves on the boards and/or LPACs of several venture capital funds (all of which have impact as part of their mandate), including 2050, The Historic Fund, and Ingressive Capital, and as an advisory board member of Ada Ventures. Ed advocates on issues concerning racial equity, gender, the LGBTQIA+ community, reproductive rights, and gun control.
