EUVC #269: Lucile Cornet, General Partner at Eight Roads on SME Vertical SaaS and Series B investing

Today, we have Lucile Cornet with us. Lucile is a Partner at Eight Roads, a $11BN global venture fund with offices across the globe.Eight Roads invests in companies at the Series B stage and helps them scale up internationally. They have 450 portfolio companies globally, of which 60 are IPOs, and many are unicorns: Alibaba, Toast, Flywire, Chewy, Hibob, Neo4j, or Fever.Lucile is part of the European team of Eight Roads. She is a French national (born in Toulouse) but has been based in London for 15 years and focuses on anything SaaS and Fintech series B. She became one of the youngest female partners in Europe, being promoted to Partner in 2021 at just 33 years old. Her investments include companies such as Spendesk, Leocare, Amenitiz, Reveal, and Thinksurance.Outside work, Lucile is a mum of two daughters who loves adventurous travel and cooking and as you’ll see, a dazzling extrovert who thrives in meeting new people.Watch the full interview on eu.vc 👀 and read our core learnings 🧠Chapters00:00:00 - Lucile’s journey in VC & Eight Roads Venture Fund intro00:06:30 - Moving fast in the tech industry00:07:07 - Learning and unlearning in VC00:15:07 - Building firm belief & conviction ahead of an investment00:18:00 - Why a little bit of chaos is good for you00:24:02 - The Potential of SME Vertical SaaS00:29:49 - The value ad model and investing in growth00:35:59 - Sales, marketing and adoption in enterprise software00:38:59 - The importance of Humility and listening00:42:17 - The importance of Speed and execution00:45:03 - On Leadership and decision-making 00:48:04 - Building strong relationships in business00:51:11 - People and culture in VC00:54:16 - Advice for emerging VCs across Europe00:57:27 - Don't give up on fundraising