I’ll cut to the chase.
I’m joining Samsung NEXT Ventures to lead our early stage software investments focused on immersive technology, esports and gaming.
My first taste of the venture capital world came in grad school when I spent time working with Cornell’s BR Venture Fund looking at early stage investments. At the time (and probably due to the fact that I wore a blazer and jeans at one point to a pitch meeting) being a VC felt inauthentic to me. Fortunately, I ended up meeting Reece and the rest of the Techstars 2011 class here in NYC and decided my time would be better spent jumping into the trenches of building early stage companies.
8 years, 4 companies and 2 acquisitions later, I’m excited to be returning full time to the VC world where I’ve jettisoned blazers in favor of t-shirts. Aside from my undying optimism about where the future of technology might take us as a society, I’m excited to support founders and both old and new faces in the New York ecosystem that I’ve built a relationship with over the past years.
I’m a native New Yorker, and I’ve been excited to see NYC grow from a fledgling tech economy to a powerhouse over the past 8 years. When I met with Gus Warren at Samsung NEXT, it became immediately clear that my beliefs about what would give rise to the next big wave of billion dollars businesses were shared by the team at Samsung NEXT.
If you are a founder building a business in NYC and looking to learn more about Samsung NEXT Ventures, I’d love to hear from you. You can email me at [c.kurdziel@samsungnext.com].
Finally, I’d just love to take a quick second and thank everyone at Vimeo who made the last few years so much fun. In particular, working with Casey and Jamie for the past few years to grow VHX into Vimeo OTT has been one of my memorable career experiences. Thanks to everyone at VHX and Vimeo who taught me that building products is fun, but building real businesses is even more fun. Onward!