Emerging VC Talent: Edition 6, Naomi Goez

Welcome to my monthly interview series on emerging VC talent! We talk everything from insights on emerging industries and tech, venture dynamics, and career-best practices.

In the sixth edition, I interviewed Naomi Goez, Principal at Forum Ventures. Forum Ventures is a leading early-stage fund, accelerator, and venture studio for B2B SaaS startups.

TL;DR: Key Takeaways

• Hot Take: Early stage venture and customer service have meaningful overlap in soft skills. The principles of empathy and adaptability are key for anyone entering a leadership or relationship-driven field like venture capital.
• Best Practices: Stay curious. Approach opportunities with a beginner’s mindset and a willingness to challenge your beliefs. Be open to learning anywhere from anyone.
• Setting Up for Success: Be kind and help others — it will pay off in unexpected ways.

Q: What was your first job?

A: My first ever jobs were in retail and hospitality, starting off with a sales associate position at West Edmonton Mall when I was a high school student. I learned fundamental skills in time management and problem-solving. It was a good foundational introduction to developing empathy and patience while simultaneously working at a fast pace. I think everyone should have to work in retail or hospitality at some point. Customer service roles force you to learn how to understand, react to, and manage a wide range of emotions. You’re actively working on relationship building, addressing needs, concerns, frustrations, and developing an ability to quickly respond and iterate. These skills are particularly valuable in my role now, where emotional intelligence is a prerequisite.

Q: Can you talk to me more about your professional background?

A: One of the things I love about venture is that it’s an industry where you see a diverse set of backgrounds across operating and finance. My life plan was to study business in college, but my real dream was to be a fashion designer. I ended up getting into a fashion school in Los Angeles and moved there with everything I owned in 8 hockey duffel bags. I didn’t know anyone in LA or in fashion, but I made it work with immersion and exposure. I took a job at a bar to pay for school and completed a host of internships.

I ultimately landed a job as an outerwear designer but quickly realized it wasn’t for me. What I was gravitating towards wasn’t the creative process of designing the product but the intricate, global nature of the fashion industry.

I pivoted from fashion into supply chain, which launched the bulk of my career. I joined a subsidiary of the largest supply chain management company in the world for apparel. I was there through an M&A, a bankruptcy, and a take private by Blackstone, HPS, and Aries. While there was a lot of restructuring, it really felt like I was in the right place at the right time. I got to see what those types of changes in a corporation do to the overall strategy and high level goals.

I ended up managing over 60% of our manufacturing volume on the controlled brand side of the business on the west coast, primarily manufactured in Mexico. I spent a lot of my time implementing supply chain consolidation initiatives alongside sustainability-related initiatives within various parts of our supply chain.

There was no meaningful tech stack to benchmark and track progress. I constantly thought about opportunities to digitize legacy industries that touch the supply chain. It also became evident that there was a huge opportunity at the intersection of supply chain and accountability to establish a level of corporate responsibility. That realization catalyzed my move from mature enterprises to startups. I ended up at a small circular economy startup, where I helped the founder with fundraising.

From there, I went back to school with two burning things on my mind. First, there are so many archaic industries that need digitization, and second, it’s really hard to fundraise, especially if you come from a non-traditional background. I started investing at Alpaca, where I was looking at supply chain opportunities. I made the move to Forum to get more generalist exposure and to learn as much as I could as fast as I could. At Forum, I look at and execute on B2B software in all sectors, but the thesis areas I contribute to primarily revolve around supply chain, healthcare, and vertical AI.

Q: What themes or trends are you bullish on right now?

A: Between 2018 and 2022, $50B of venture and growth capital flowed into supply chain deals, driven by the explosion of e-commerce and the growth catalyzed by Covid-19. By the end of 2023, that momentum had significantly slowed, with only about $1B deployed into supply chain tech. This shift got me thinking about the intersection of supply chain and sectors currently seeing more activity — like defense and hardware. I’ve been diving into research on how geopolitical dynamics shape supply chain opportunities.

In terms of thesis development I am looking at various vulnerabilities that may impact AI infrastructure development as well as the energy transition. This touches on the value chains of various materials and minerals, and also extends to trends in nearshoring. Right now, my research is intentionally broad to understand how software can move the needle in each area.

Q: How do you learn about a new industry quickly?

A: I think the lowest hanging fruit and the best way to get a lot of relevant information is through talking to executives. Right now, I’m refreshing my overall supply chain software purchasing lens. I reached out to a few dozen decision makers in supply chain across multiple sectors (like manufacturing, commerce, and pharmaceuticals), at some of the largest companies in the country.

I come into these conversations with pretty high-level questions that touch on the biggest challenges these decision-makers face. What are they doing to solve them? How do they discover software or solutions for these issues? What are their sales cycles? I’m trying to get really smart on the pulse and state of the market.

These conversations are mutually beneficial oftentimes because these are the people who are eager to learn about technologies that are available to them and their teams, and I can provide access to some of those solutions while I learn how they’re thinking about it.

Q: What was the biggest skill you had to learn in order to excel in your role as Principal?

A: In my role, I lead a team of pre-partner investment professionals at Forum, but I also have my own individual goals around deal sourcing and execution. I’ve had to learn how to balance a world of individual contributors while being a team player and a people leader.

I also own and test at a small scale various projects that I think can be a value add. As a woman and an immigrant, I’m very passionate about supporting underrepresented talent, and I’m constantly trying to challenge myself and think through the ways in which we can better engage with those communities. For example, I have been testing a concept called Pilates & Pitches in collaboration with a couple of funds.

Similarly, a lot of my thesis work in the early days when I joined Forum involved putting out market maps and thought leadership to gauge how our audience responded. It proved fruitful, and we were able to attract deals that eventually became portfolio companies.

Q: How do you spend your time outside of work? Can you speak to any professional applications or learnings?

A: I love to exercise, primarily pilates and lagree. I also read a lot of books that aren’t necessarily work-related. There’s a lot of power in spending time on learning things that superficially may not feel applicable to a deal or to an investment area but in fact, introduce a forcing function to challenge some biases and preconceived notions that we might have going into an opportunity or evaluation of a deal.

Q: Biggest learning or piece of advice?

A: Curiosity is celebrated in venture. I approach everything with a beginners mindset and with an openness to being wrong.

I also think it’s incredibly important to support people who are mission-aligned regardless of the immediate outcome. When I started with Forum, I met a couple of brilliant founders building in fintech. They weren’t interested in taking our capital at the time we met, but I was genuinely interested in their success, so I introduced them to investors who would be a better fit for them at that moment. Eventually, I gained their trust, and we were able to invest in them!

Know an emerging VC talent I should feature? Send me a note on Linkedin.

Originally published at https://medium.com on January 23, 2025.