Prior to joining WME Ventures, the independent corporate venturing unit of talent management powerhouse WME IMG, Anis Rashid led US-based e-commerce marketplace Spring’s operations scaling team and helped design and develop its vendor-facing analytics product.
Before joining Spring, he worked at Goldman Sachs in its technology, media and telecomsinvestment banking group, where Rashid said he worked on a number of deals, including Zulily’s flotation, DirecTV’s sale to AT&T and Disney’s acquisition of LucasFilm.
Rashid’s first foray into the startup world came when building a social blogging platform called Opin during his third year at University of Virginia.
Under managing partner Beth Ferreira, WME Ventures, which raises about half of its $50m first fund from outside investors, has made nine investments, including pet food company Ollie and game streaming company Forge, since Rashid joined in March last year.
Rashid said he joined as “I saw WME Ventures as a particularly compelling opportunity to leverage a platform that has an outsized impact on today’s consumer landscape.
“The WME-IMG network has numerous touch points from strategy and early-stage development through to commercialisation and mass-market adoption, which create a unique opportunity to add strategic value to early stage companies.
“As traditional VCs move towards a service model, WME Ventures’ structure enables it to align incentives with entrepreneurs and help facilitate innovation in technology, media, commerce, gaming, sports, and fashion, among other verticals.
“The challenge will always be that there are not enough hours in the day – we must always ensure that each entrepreneur and business is given careful consideration, while still allocating sufficient time to working with our portfolio companies and staying abreast of newly emerging trends.
“I believe every investor benefits from aligning their incentives with those of the founders they invest in. If incentives are aligned and teams consist of thoughtful, discerning investors with relevant experiences, then a corporate affiliation can be seen as pure incremental value.”