Geraldine Alias, Vice President

• Honed engineering and Japanese language skills at NEC in Yonezawa, Japan
• Advised Enterprise Software and Telecommunications companies while at McKinsey & Co.
• Worked in venture capital from 2002-2005 at Battery Ventures
• Worked on large LBO related transactions at Goldman Sachs in London
• Sector focus includes Information Services, Software, Healthcare Services, Internet Applications and Digital Media
• Sits on the board of Cortera and is actively involved with Stylesight, Ventana and Flock
• Co-chair of New England Venture Network (NEVN) whose mission is to provide education, research and networking for non-partner VCs in New England

Geraldine was born in Paris, France and moved to the States when she was five years old for what was planned to be "a two year or so expat experience." Like most things in life, the plan changed.  Geraldine has yet to move back to France, though she visits often and even duel tracked her education by taking French correspondence courses just in case.

"I thought about returning to France to attend university, but fell in love with Princeton University, due to both its small size and its reputation for strong academics across all disciplines. I was pretty sure I wanted to study electrical engineering, but I wanted to have that flexibility in case I woke up one morning and wanted to change majors. Plus, I love to explore new things and Princeton provides students with that flexibility. "

And explore she did.  For example, her sophomore summer was spent working in the engineering lab at NEC’s Yonezawa facility where she tested NEC’s laptops while also honing her Japanese (Geraldine is Fidelity Venture’s resident polyglot; she is fluent in English and French and continuously tries to dabble in the Japanese and German she once mastered). Geraldine also ran the Business Plan Contest while at Princeton and wrote a senior paper on starting a technology incubator.

But, during her junior year, she was introduced to the world of consulting, and it immediately piqued her interest.

Upon graduation, Geraldine moved to Silicon Valley to join McKinsey & Co. Two years and over 10 projects later, Geraldine moved back to the east coast and joined Battery Ventures in 2002 - certainly not the best economic time in the world of venture capital, but definitely one of extreme learning.

"During my tenure at Battery, I saw what it took to grow and create solid, sustainable businesses. You learn a lot during the tough times - about what makes or breaks a company, what it takes to survive.  I have a lot of lessons learned from those years that I constantly apply in my professional and personal life."

Her last year at Battery was a bit unusual as she spent time working closely with one of Battery’s entrepreneurs looking at rolling up several healthcare businesses.

"It’s fun thinking outside the box and looking for opportunities in places that others are not. It reminded me of when I looked at the video gaming sector in 2003/2004 - everyone thought we were crazy."

Geraldine then decided that she wanted to add to her on-the-job-training by going  to business school.  Initially she thought she would use business school to transition to the operating side, but while at Harvard Business School, she realized that her attention was consistently drawn and directed back towards venture capital, technology innovation and deal-doing.

"My parents always said that you know your passion by the sections of the newspaper you eagerly turn to first. I missed the excitement of doing deals and working in technology, so I decided to intern in London with Goldman Sachs’ Technology, Media and Telecom Group."

Her summer provided her with valuable insights into the world of investment banking and LBOs.  "It was fascinating and fun to be on the sell-side for a summer. I worked on some very interesting transactions with some great people."

Ultimately, however, Geraldine decided to return to technology-focused principal investing. Having met Larry Cheng while at Battery, Geraldine surprised many by joining him at Fidelity Ventures, a firm with a long past in venture capital but with very little notoriety.

 "I joined Fidelity Ventures because I believe that as the venture space gets increasingly competitive, you have to offer something more than just capital to entrepreneurs. It was clear to me that Fidelity Ventures possesses a unique platform. The examples are endless. For example, Fidelity Ventures has the ability to leverage relationships and insights from within the broader Fidelity organization. It is incredible to see this play out." 

When Geraldine is not networking with entrepreneurs and investors, dissecting market segments or helping her portfolio companies, she travels to exotic locations and attempts to keep up her language skills.