How a female VC evaluates early-stage startups

Breaking into venture capital (VC) as a woman requires resilience, curiosity and strong networks. Irene Prota, Investment Manager at Porsche Ventures, shares her journey from Big 4 consulting to becoming a female VC investor supporting early-stage startups. Here's what she learned about evaluating founders, building relationships and navigating a male-dominated industry as well as practical advice for startups seeking seed and series A funding. 

From consulting to venture capital: Learning early-stage investing

After studying economics, management and finance, Ms Prota followed what she calls the obvious path into consulting for a Big 4 company. Yet her curiosity for innovation kept growing and she landed her first venture capital role in a young FinTech fund. It was there that she discovered how energising it is to work with founders. “It was a really new world, really fresh air,” she recalls, and being the only employee beside the partners meant she learned every layer of the job at once. 

Her time at this FinTech VC fund became a crash course in end-to-end investing. She managed everything from speaking to Limited Partners (LPs) to preparing due diligence and reporting. That experience shaped her most valuable skills. She learned to evaluate founders early, structure deals and build relationships across the ecosystem. “I was doing pretty much everything and that let me grow a lot,” she says. The role also confirmed that she wanted to be close to innovation, where decisions are fast and learning curves steep. 

Today, Ms Prota is an Investment Manager at Porsche Ventures, working at seed and series A stage. She scouts for exceptional teams, supports them long after investment and opens doors across Porsche’s network. “You are fully aligned with the founders, working side by side toward the same goal,” she explains. What sets Porsche Ventures apart is its strategic advantage. All portfolio companies benefit from the extensive network and expertise inside and around Porsche’s industrial ecosystem, connecting startups with business units, C-Level executives and innovation managers across a wide industrial landscape. The goal is to bring added value on all sides, helping startups scale, while accelerating corporate innovation and creating outsized returns for the fund.

When you invest, the relationship is everything. You are always dealing with people.” Irene Prota, Porsche Ventures  

Women in venture capital: Building networks in a male-dominated industry 

Ms Prota believes that women often bring a particular sensitivity to conversations that matter in early-stage investing. Subtle cues, gestures or unspoken tensions can influence how a founder might perform under pressure. “We are evaluating people at the end of the day,” she says and empathy can help investors judge whether someone can build a successful startup ready to scale. 

People also stand at the centre of Ms Prota’s own growth. Entering VC with no industry network, she found support in a global women in venture capital Slack group. There she met a partner at another VC fund, who became her mentor. Regular calls helped her navigate the industry and understand how to build strong relationships. She also benefitted from industry events specifically designed for women like Unlock VC, a community where female investors and founders can speak openly and learn from one another. “It is a great environment because you feel safe to speak about everything,” she says. 

Startup fundraising advice: What founders should know before approaching VCs

Looking ahead, Ms Prota sees potential in sustainable mining and new approaches for extracting critical minerals, an emerging sector where she hopes more European startups will innovate.  

Her strongest message, however, is for founders preparing to fundraise. Before contacting any investor, she advises them to understand the fund’s focus. “I get a lot of inbound messages, but the ones that truly align with our investment focus are the ones that really stand out,” she notes. An introduction from a mutual contact is ideal, because cold emails and LinkedIn messages are easily lost due to volume. Doing this groundwork shows professionalism and increases the chances of engagement. 

Ms Prota’s journey reflects the essence of early-stage VC, where people, trust and curiosity shape every decision. Through her work at Porsche Ventures and her commitment to stronger networks for women, she continues to open doors for founders who are ready to grow.