F ounders and investors alike should be excellent signal processors. But what if you are navigating an environment that your ‘sensors’ are not attuned to? You can adjust those sensors and blaze a trail. You can transform your drawbacks into unfair competitive advantages.

A woman, a foreigner, and an engineer, Maria Dramalioti-Taylor, shares her story of breaking into the venture capital industry. Maria is the founding partner of Beacon Capital, a London venture capital firm.

What you need to learn and unlearn to become a VC investor

Coming to the UK back in 1993 from Greece to pursue post-graduate studies in mechanical engineering, Maria made several career moves and landed in the venture capital industry. She explained what helped her to enter the investment space and how she turned her experience and personal skills into advantages to find her place in this industry. While learning from British people how to give space for doubts and rely on her intuition Maria also needed to unlearn the engineering mindset principles she had from her education.