In this episode, James Mackey is joined by Sanket Merchant, Partner at PeakSpan Capital, to delve into the complexities of the current economic environment in the tech industry and it's effects on businesses. They examine the supply and demand dynamics within the venture capital ecosystem, as well as the influence of generative AI on both businesses and customers.
00:28 Sanket's background
02:24 Tech industry and VC market overview
10:23 Impact of growth and budget constraints
18:40 Impact of economic factors on investments
22:49 Growth and investment strategies for boards
27:06 Generative AI's impact on businesses and customers
Sanket has worked with growth-stage software businesses throughout his career and has served on more than 12 boards. Today, he is one of four Partners on the team and leads the firm's coverage of both Cyber & Digital Infrastructure and EdTech. Sanket joined PeakSpan just one year after its founding in 2016 as one of the first non-founding team members and has helped build the firm from two investments and $150M in Fund I to more than $2.5B in AUM, backing applied AI and B2B software companies on the journey from $3–10M to beyond $50M in ARR.
Before joining PeakSpan, Sanket worked in the Technology, Media & Telecom Group at Houlihan Lokey, focusing exclusively on software M&A and private financing transactions for $10–50M ARR companies through critical inflection points such as selling, raising capital, or recapitalizing. Before Houlihan Lokey, Sanket was a Global Banking and Brokerage Group Consultant at FactSet Research Systems, where he partnered with investment banking, private equity, and venture capital clients.
Sanket holds a B.B.A. in Finance with a minor in Economics from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Sanket jokes that he's grown up at PeakSpan, having celebrated some remarkable personal milestones while with the firm, including getting engaged and married to his wife, Mansi, purchasing their first home, and welcoming their twin boys, Aarav and Samar.