What is 500 Startups, and what are its goals.

This article is written by Nardine B. M’barek, a Contributor Author at Startup Istanbul.

Andrea Barrica is a Philipino-American woman who was raised in the USA. She is a venture partner residing in San Francisco, and working within a company called ‘500 Startups’. She is also the founder and owner of O.School; which goal is to make sure that the next generations have far more resources than the previous ones when it comes to Education.

Mrs. Andrea Barrica is a very active entrepreneur in the field. She is the founder of O.School, a company that aims at providing future generations with enough resources regarding every subject when it comes to education. She is also a venture partner in ‘500 Startups’. She joined us during Startup Turkey and delivered a speech regarding what she learned the most when being a venture partner working in accelerator and emerging markets.

500 Startups is one of the most active seed investors in Silicon Valley. Since its establishment in 2010, they have made over 15.000 investments. Their team is constituted of over 100 team members that are located all over the world, which helped the company create a global portfolio of investment in over 60 countries.  Notable portfolio companies include: Twilio (NYSE: TWLO), SendGrid (NASDAQ: SEND), Credit Karma, Grab, Carousell, Udemy, Kudo (acquired by Grab), Talkdesk, Makerbot (acquired by SSYS), Wildfire (acquired by GOOG), and Viki (acquired by Rakuten).

They have been making small bets in a lot of companies globally, not only in the United States. The reason why they invest in companies all over the world is that they believe that talent could be found absolutely everywhere. The problem is that not everyone has access to resources and fundings that would allow her or him to establish their company, and make their idea part of reality. 500 Startups also believe those wonderful and great things could happen if you only give smart people some money to help them realize what they have been thinking about.

This investors’ company represent a seed fund, but they are also an accelerator. Mrs. Andrea Barrica is part of the 500 Startup accelerator program, which is a four-month program in Silicon Valley that aims at bringing entrepreneurs startup owners from all over the world to the company’s office in order to help them understand what entrepreneurship is really about by assisting them in creating growth engines through sales and marketing.

They also help them understand how to get the investment and money they need in order to establish their company, as well as how to hold a fundraising event. 500 Startups also helps the entrepreneurs that they bring through teaching them how to create a community and a network in Silicon Valley that would profit them a lot in the future, and help them make many steps forward in the field. 

Mrs. Andrea Barrica has been working with 500 Startups for a while now, and thanks to that experience, she has learned a lot. She stated that she worked on three batches since then, and has been on the investment team working on over 125 investments. She is also a pitching coach, which allowed her to see over a thousand pitches, and has helped her company raise over $60 Million Dollars so far. Mrs. Barrica also believes that she has one of the best jobs in the world since she gets to travel a lot, which helps feed her passion regarding emerging markets.

https://vimeo.com/158465187