“Working With Entrepreneurs Is What Brings Us Joy”: Interview with Carey Lai, Founder & Managing Director, Conductive Ventures

In this inaugural episode, we interview Carey Lai, founder and managing director of Conductive Ventures. Carey discusses his path into venture capital, why he decided to start his own firm with Paul Yeh, and why he likes investing in capital efficient companies and unconventional founders.

Conductive Conversations is a series from the Conductive Ventures team featuring tech investors, founders and CEOs and their authentic stories. This episode’s host is Robin Chan, an investor at Conductive Ventures.

Carey Lai is a Founder and Managing Director at Conductive Ventures focused on finding overlooked entrepreneurs who are building capital-efficient businesses who punch above their weight.

With deep experience in software and tech-enabled services, Carey brings a results-driven, hands-on approach to scaling businesses empowering founders who dare to dream big and make the nearly impossible a reality.

Carey’s journey to becoming a seasoned venture investor over the past 20 years has been anything but conventional. Before founding Conductive Ventures, he spent over seven years diving into the world of tech investing at Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), where he specialized in later-stage, high-growth companies in the enterprise software realm.

He was involved with companies like ArcSight (ARST), At Road (ARDI), Business.com (DEXO), Concur (CNQR), Cortina Systems (acquired by Inphi), Danger (MSFT), Data Domain (EMC), Mobile365 (SAP), SuccessFactors (SFSF), Synchronoss (SNCR) and Yodlee (YDLE).

After IVP, Carey continued to sharpen his investment experience at Intel Capital, where he honed his focus on the most promising Internet and enterprise software companies. His portfolio included 500Friends (acquired by Dentsu), Box (BOX), BrightEdge, Gigya (acquired by SAP), Kabam (acquired by Netmarble), Nexmo (acquired by Vonage), Onefinestay (acquired by AccorHotels), Sprinklr (CXM), and SweetLabs.

Carey’s roots trace back to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he worked in the Technology Investment Banking Group. It was here that he got intimately involved in the software and financial technology sectors, handling high-profile offerings for tech giants like some of the leading technology companies in the world, including Blackbaud Software (BLKB), Computer Associates (CA), Hewlett Packard (HPQ), Sungard Data Systems (SDS), and Tibco Software (TIBX).

Carey has an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He also graduated with a B.A. in International Economics from the University of California Los Angeles.