To the world she was the incredible Manorama Mohapatra. For me, she was simply Aiee.
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We lost my amazing grandmother this weekend. It was sudden, unexpected and over before it started. The last few days have been a fog that may clear a bit over time but never fully dispel. To the world she was the incredible Manorama Mohapatra, the preeminent and legendary writer, journalist, editor, Economics professor, women’s right advocate, and social justice organizer. For me, she was simply Aiee (which is what we call our maternal Grandmother in Oriya). Most my friends growing up idolized superheroes in capes. For me, those characters didn’t hold an inch to the real life superhero I got to see draped in a sari living on the other side of the world. She was always my role model and I wrote essays in grade school, high school, college and grad school about how her life and teachings shaped my inner and outer worlds. I really can’t imagine life without her but I’m hopeful that I can do justice to her example by living out those values throughout the duration of my existence. I was planning to see her after this pandemic subsides and have my kids meet her in person for the first time. As they say “disappointment comes to those who make appointments with the future”. It’s a reminder to cherish the present versus solely optimizing for the future. She always wanted me to follow in her footsteps and write so I’m hoping to distill some of her amazing teachings and stories in the coming months.
To all those who reached out over the past few days – a huge thank you. It means the world to all of us and she touched countless lives over her 87 years. I’ve been overwhelmed reading the stories being shared – some by family members and many from people across the world.
Somesh Dash joined IVP in March of 2005. He focuses primarily on growth investments in Enterprise Software, Consumer and Mobile Internet, and Digital Health companies. Somesh was recognized by The New York Times and CB Insights in 2019 as one of the top 100 venture capitalists and by GrowthCap as one of the Top 40 Under 40 Growth Investors in 2019, which highlights exceptional private capital investors in the growth segment.
Somesh actively participated in IVP’s investments in AddThis (ORCL), Akamai (AKAM), Aledade, Amplitude, AppDynamics (CSCO), At Road (TRMB), Ayasdi, Brex, Business Insider (Axel Springer), CafePress (PRSS), Care.com (CRCM), ComScore (SCOR), Datalogix (ORCL), Danger (MSFT), Digital River (DRIV), Discord, Dropbox (DBX), Expanse (PANW), FleetMatics (FLTX), Gaia Online, H1, Hipmunk (SAP), Humu, Klout (Lithium), Lime, Loopnet (CSGP), Lyra Health, MotoSport (LINTA), MySQL (ORCL), Netflix (NFLX), Personal Capital (Empower), Pindrop, Pure Storage (PSTG), Qubole (Idera), Quigo (TWX), Rubrik, Shazam (AAPL), SoundCloud, Tanium, Thrive Global, TuneIn, Uber (UBER), Uproxx (WMG), Walker & Company (PG), Whisper, ZEFR, and Zynga (ZNGA).
Prior to joining IVP, Somesh was an Analyst in the Corporate Finance Division of Credit Suisse’s Technology Investment Banking Group. While at Credit Suisse, Somesh focused on strategic financing initiatives for a number of public and private technology companies. Prior to joining Credit Suisse, Somesh worked for Luxmi Capital, an early stage venture capital fund focused on digital media investments. He also worked for the Corporate Development Division of Sony Entertainment Television (SET) in Mumbai, India.
Somesh is currently a member of the Management Board at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business (GSB), the board of The Tech Interactive, and the Advisory Board of Malaria No More. He’s a former member of the Advisory Board of the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship, the Haas Alumni Board and the Haas Development Board at UC Berkeley. He’s also formerly served on the Tech Advisory Group of UCSF, the Advisory Board for Stanford’s Center for Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS), and was a term member of the Council of Foreign Relations.
Somesh earned a B.S. in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley and an M.B.A. from Stanford University.
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