LOCATION: London, UK
LANGUAGES SPOKEN: Russian, English and French
CURRENT ROLE: General Partner, Dawn Capital
PREVIOUS LEADERSHIP ROLES:
Investor, Atomico
Investor, TPG Capital
BOARDWAVE ROLES: Partner, Mentor
Evgenia Plotnikova is a remarkable woman. She is a general partner at Dawn Capital, Europe’s largest specialist B2B software venture fund – and the youngest woman in Europe to have been internally promoted to the position. Plotnikova joined Dawn Capital in 2018 as one of the firm’s first employees. Today, it has a team of 42.
“I’ve got wonderful partners and wonderful colleagues. And we are all driven by the mission of creating an institution and a legacy that’s bigger than us,” Plotnikova says. She is proud of the company’s commitment to creating and maintaining a truly diverse workplace.
Since Plotnikova joined Dawn, the team has seen some huge successes – not least the acquisitions of Tink, iZettle, LeanIX and Granulate. Dawn has also seen 15 companies raise more than $100 million in funding, including unicorns Collibra, Dataiku, and Quantexa.
Dawn Capital invests primarily in B2B start-ups that are raising Series A and B funding rounds, focusing on sectors from the infrastructure layer to applications, including data analytics, developer tooling, fintech, security, and the automation of enterprise. But Plotnikova sees it as a lot more than just an investment team. “It’s a unique and exciting opportunity for me to be both an investor and part of an entrepreneurial journey here at Dawn,” she says.
And the entrepreneurs they back are not just taking a bet on Plotnikova and Dawn Capital. “We are grateful to be buildinga wonderful firm together with our founders, our LPS, advisors, and the broader Dawn family,” she says.
So, what does Plotnikova look for in a start-up? “Typically it involves a big market opportunity, whether that is an existing market or a market that has been created by the entrepreneur,” she says. And, she continues, it is important the start-up is led by “an extremely driven and passionate founder” who has
“a certain degree of resilience and relentlessness and drive”.
Looking out for certain characteristics in a founder makes sense, seeing as the journey to business success may takea decade or more. The founder also needs to be “smart enough to surround themselves with people who are perhaps better than them and with the humility to recognise that they can’t do everything,” Plotnikova says.
Humble beginnings
Plotnikova was born in Russia, in the small border city of Taganrog, which is famous for little other than being the birthplace of Chekhov. She grew up in a tiny apartment with her parents, grandparents, aunt and uncle, as well as a cat and a dog. Her father worked in a factory and her mother was a waitress. As was often the case for post-Soviet children, much of Plotnikova’s daily upbringing was down to her grandparents.
The crowded surroundings didn’t stop a young Plotnikova from dreaming of a career as a politician or a diplomat. “Sometimes your imagination is limited by the reality that you face. I tried for mine not to be limited by the physical world of what I was observing, and to make my dreams bigger,” she says.
Being a big reader helped fuel Plotnikova’s imagination and she excelled at maths and languages. When she was 15, after her father died and her mother remarried, the family moved to France. It was a culture shock for the teenager. Plotnikova was enrolled into a British school because she couldn’t speak French. Her high school days as a Russian with “a very thick accent” were tough, she recalls.
Plotnikova went on to study Political Science and Economics at a French university, later transferring to The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in the US. “I had hunger and ambition, drive and curiosity. Even if you happen to be an immigrant who doesn’t speak the language and comes from a working-class background, my attitude has always been ‘Why not?’”
This approach, she says, stems from being told no – a lot: “You don’t speak French so how can you go to a French university? You studied politics so how can you get into banking? You are a banker, why would you get into private equity?”
Plotnikova’s search for work began in 2008 – not an easy time to get a job, especially in banking. So, she went backto university to study for a master’s degree, before landing a job with JP Morgan two years later. “Seeing how big financial institutions were affecting the global economy, I wanted to be a part of that,” she says. But she always saw it as a stepping stone to something else. She went on to roles at TPG Capital and Atomico.
Building connections
Despite her success at Dawn, Plotnikova remains humble. She says that successful people fall into two different camps: “Those who hold on to their success and encourage others to do their own work. And those who recognise that they stand on the shoulders of giants and wish to pay it forward in terms of sharing advice and their experiences.” That is what she hopes to do at Boardwave, something she describes as being “a tremendous privilege” to be a part of. She agrees that to replicate the success of Silicon Valley, European ecosystems need greater connectivity.
“Europe is so spread out and there are talent hubs and opportunities in every country. If there is any silver lining to Covid-19, it’s that it broke down a lot of borders and made more people comfortable with technology. You can build great businesses anywhere with no geographic monopoly on talent.”
She hopes that Boardwave can help “capitalise on that”. She has now lived outside of Russia longer than she lived there and, because of the geopolitics in the region, she thinks it will remain tricky for her to visit for the foreseeable future. But as a self- proclaimed third culture kid, she is pragmatic: “I am lucky to
be home everywhere, although I don’t feel an acute sense of home anywhere.” She adds that London, where she is currently based, is “one of the most diverse cities I have ever lived in” and a place that “you do feel instantaneously at home in”.
Tips From The Top
What are your top tips for business success?
1. There are no secret sauces. Find a way to keep pursuing what you do. The best things take time and a lot of persistence. It also means that your health and the people you surround yourself with are critical.
2. Always pay it forward – you will be surprised how kindness and generosity compound.
3. Put yourself in a position to get lucky: hustle, take chances, keep an open mind and stay curious.
What is the best advice you’ve been given?
My first boss in my career told me: “It is a marathon, not a sprint.”
Can you tell us something surprisingabout yourself?
Growing up, I wanted to be a diplomat. In fact, I turned down a prestigious dual master’s in international relations in order to move to London and work in the private sector.
If you hadn’t become an entrepreneur, what career would you have pursued?
I would want to bring my business knowledge to policy making or do something creative.
Is there a piece of tech, other than your phone, that you could not live without?
My noise-cancelling headphones for travel. Planes and trains are just about the last place where I have the joy of complete focus.
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