UNDERSTAND YOUR INVESTOR VENTURE CAPITAL ARTICULATE DREAMERS AND DURABILITY By Omar Sacirbey Leadership teams and long-term solutions are key considerations for venture capital firms Karan Wadhera Managing partner, Casa Verde Capital Los Angeles F or Karan Wadhera, the strength of a company's leadership team is the most important factor when evaluating the business. Wadhera is managing partner at Casa Verde Capital, a Los Angeles-based venture capital firm that has invested in 25 plant-touching and ancillary companies. " It's all about the entrepreneur and the founders, because we are generally investing (in the) earlier stage. But even if we're investing a little bit later in the process, we put a lot of emphasis on evaluating the founder or the founding team. How passionate are they about what they're building? Do they have a strong vision for their business? The ability to be flexible and change-especially in a dynamic industry like cannabis-all those things are really important to us, " Wadhera said. He noted that founders don't have to be veteran entrepreneurs to win Casa Verde's confidence; they just need relevant professional experience and the ability to articulate their vision. 72 MJBizMagazine | October 2021 Karan Wadhera has led Casa Verde Capital in funding more than two-dozen companies. Photo by Evan Mulling