A Venture Capitalist Helps to Build Solutions

Having worked in venture capital since graduating from Johns Hopkins, Demi Obayomi ’15 (Nigeria, Pearson College UWC) believes there’s no more exciting career.

“Venture capital is the story of David and Goliath played out again and again in every technology category you can think of — and that’s what makes it so worthwhile,” he writes. “It exposes you to the ups and downs of taking a small kernel of an idea and transforming it, from a small founding team to a full-fledged operating company. Many of the largest and most well-known technology companies got their start with venture capital.”

After college, where he started a venture capital fund investing in startups founded by
Johns Hopkins students, Demi worked for two years at Goldman Sachs and FirstMark Capital in New York City He then moved to San Francisco to work with NextWorld Capital, which he describes as “coming to the major leagues of venture capital.” After a few years, he joined Sapphire, a larger firm in the field, where he’s working today.

“I’ve been fortunate to partner with over a dozen companies over the last few years at Sapphire and the firms I previously worked at,” Demi notes. “At the heart of venture capital investing you have a small founding team, typically of five people or less, that sets out to work on a problem they feel so strongly about that they need to build the solution themselves.

“Over the years I’ve run into several venture capitalists and startup founders who are also UWC alums,” he adds “It’s been a welcome surprise!”

This profile is part of the “Graduates in Action” series from the 2024 Annual Report.