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Mercedes Bent first connected with a Lightspeed partner over LinkedIn, more than a year before she interviewed for a role at the firm.
In the following months, she impressed Lightspeed s investors over coffee chats with her specific investment theses in the edtech and multicultural consumer products markets.
During her formal interview, she impressed partners by showing them how she narrowed down a list of 60 startups into three companies she wanted to invest in.
Bent, a Black woman from North Carolina, hopes to use her position to bring more minority investors into the venture world.