With the recent market pullback, growth-stage startups have to figure out how to best navigate today’s markets. In this episode, we welcome Margaret Wu, Partner and Lead Investor at Georgian Partners, a Canadian fund that invests in high-growth tech companies. Recently they have focused on the growth of applied AI, investing in Vention, a digital manufacturing automation platform in its $95M Series-C round; and in a $150M Series-C round for global HR software platform Oyster. Georgian Partners also publishes The Georgian Impact Podcast , runs the collaborative pre-investment CoLab program, and has developed a robust R&D team that leverages AI-driven solutions for its founders. Margo and I discuss how software can be the lifeblood of a well-run organization; how Georgian is currently managing its existing portfolio investments, and the incredible platform Georgian has built to help companies use data to deliver insights to CEOs and startups.  About Margo Wu: Margaret “Margo” Wu is a Lead Investor at Georgian and is involved in due diligence, deal selection, and board governance for startups exploiting Applied AI. Prior to Georgian, she was a Product Manager for mobile marketing at Amazon, co-founded a biotech company, and served as COO at OneSpout, a local e-commerce startup. Margaret began her career in technology consulting at Accenture and holds an MBA from Cornell University, as well as a BSc and BES from the University of Waterloo.  A word from our sponsor: At Ripple, we manage all of our fund expenses and employee credit cards using Jeeves. The team at Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at any time. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or to pay any setup or monthly SaaS fees. Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us up to 3% cash back on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook or AWS every month. The best part is Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days in any currency you want, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves also recently launched its Jeeves Growth and Working Capital initiative for startups and fast-growing companies to enable more financial freedom for every entrepreneur. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in 24 countries including Canada, the US and many other countries around the world. Jeeves truly offers the best all-in-one expense management corporate card program for all startups especially the ones at Ripple and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to officially partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of our Tank Talks special with a $700 sign-on bonus and skip the waitlist that already has thousands of companies by visiting tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to get setup today! In this episode we discuss: 01:27 Margo’s background in technology and startups and her journey into investing 03:10 How consulting helped Margo understand the building and scaling of companies 04:55 Lessons learned from Product Management at Amazon 09:15 Georgian’s investment thesis and mandate 12:30 How Georgian found deals at the right valuations over the past year 15:39 Thoughts on “Operating during a Downturn” and preparing for a crucible moment 18:37 How Georgian is thinking about profitability and how realistic it is for founders to pursue 21:51 Georgian’s acquisition strategy given the cheap opportunities in the public market 23:54 Advice to founders looking for growth capital but are at risk of a flat/down round 25:39 How Founders are responding to the current market conditions 27:46 Does Georgian Partners time the markets? 29:45 How Georgian manages follow-up investments in later-stage, pre-IPO firms 30:50 How Georgian’s platform has tactically supported founders 33:13 How the CoLab program works 37:03 How the R&D Team can help portfolio and non-portfolio company founders  Fast Favorites Podcast All-In Podcast Blog/Newletter Wait but Why By Tim Urban Tech Gadget Nintendo 64 New Trend Remote Work/ WFH Book Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki Life Lesson Knowing when to pivot and when to persevere Follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here! Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency