Twelve days into her new role at Idea Fund Partners in Durham, and the Triangle’s newest venture capitalist is searching for the next unicorn.
Zakiya Alta Lee, new senior associate at Idea Fund Partners, is unique – a woman VC in a sector long dominated by men. And she plans to leverage her perspective as an asset – both for the firm and for the Triangle region.
“My goal is to find the best entrepreneurs and the best companies hands down,” she said. “But I think as a woman … there is an untapped space in the market for both women and underrepresented groups … so I’m excited. I feel as a woman at Idea, I am going to be able to have the eye to help spot and forge those types of deals.”
Lee said she's looking for entrepreneurs who are solving a problem they themselves experienced.
“For me, when you recognize a problem and you set out and start a company to solve that problem, that tells me that there’s a pain point there,” she said, adding that she’s interested in “pain medicine, not vitamins.”
“We’re looking for, what is going to be that pain medicine,” she said. “Nobody gets up at 2 a.m. and gets a vitamin but they will go to the store and get that Tylenol if it’s bad enough.”
Her advice? Make sure your pitch deck is solid and shows the total addressable market for your product, as well as how you’re going to disrupt that sector.
An initial meeting with Lee likely happens via a quick Zoom call.
“Their excitement around [the startup], that makes me want to have that additional meeting in person,” she said.
From dancing to investing
Lee didn’t set out to be a VC. Initially, she was going to be a dancer. She graduated from the Florida State University School of Visual Arts and Dance and was awarded a scholarship to the Dance Theatre of Harlem in New York. Armed with a degree in dance and a minor in business, Lee made it to the NBA, where she joined the Atlanta Hawks dance team.
After four years dancing in the NBA, Lee founded her own startup from the ground up, Z Pro Prep, a firm helping dancers get professional careers.
To get a better handle on big business, she went to Duke to get an MBA, soon taking on a marketing role at Clorox.
Shifting to a corporate position would help her understand big business and enterprise, but she said she knew she would go back into the entrepreneurial space eventually. And Idea Fund Partners afforded her the opportunity.
“I love the way Idea supports their founders, both with the financing to grow … but also this role in supporting founders in different ways, mentorship,” she said.
Lee said it’s the perfect position.
“As a former founder, I think for me, I needed an opportunity where, one, I could make a difference immediately, and two, where every day was going to be a little bit different,” she said.
In a Linkedin post, Lister Delgado, managing partner at IDEA, said Lee is “already having a big impact.”
Idea Fund Partners’ portfolio includes companies such as Canopy, Klearly and Pendo.