From Consulting to VC at Accenture & AI Investing Trends

The Early - Ep. #2: Ryan Chandra, Data & AI Investments Lead @ Accenture Ventures 🤩 

Hi everyone - SO excited to share the second episode of The Early interview series! Today’s conversation features my friend Ryan Chandra, investor and data & AI investments lead at Accenture Ventures 👏 

Today’s Agenda 📈:

• Welcoming This Week’s Guest, Ryan Chandra! 🎉 

• Key Takeaways: Switching Teams Internally, Consulting ➡️ VC, AI Trends & More 💭 

•  My Favorite Quotes from Ryan 🧠 

• Poll: Share Your Feedback 💫 

• Refer a Friend 👭 

• Say Hi! 👋 

Welcoming This Week’s Guest, Ryan Chandra! 🎉 

This week, I had an amazing conversation with my friend and fellow early-career investor, Ryan Chandra 🎉 

Ryan has an incredible background as a consultant-turned-investor at Accenture Ventures, the venture capital arm of consulting leader Accenture. Ryan leads the fund’s data and AI investments strategy. Ryan was also a classmate of mine at Stanford, where he studied Public Policy (a mix of economics and political science), and also previously interned at a startup consulting firm called Artemis Consulting, where he worked on 14 different projects over the course of a summer 😱 Excited to share highlights from our conversation! ⬇️ 

p.s. Ryan loves chatting with fellow investors and founders building in the software space. You can find Ryan on LinkedIn or via email: [email protected] 🙌 

Key Takeaways: Switching Teams Internally, Consulting ➡️ VC, AI Trends & More 💭 

In this week’s convo, Ryan and I chat about:

• Ryan’s experience starting his career in consulting at Accenture

• Tips for switching teams internally within an organization (Ryan switched from consulting to VC)

• Accenture Ventures’ investment approach as a CVC

• Day in the life as an early-career VC

• Finding ways to de-stress in fast-paced careers

• Trends in data and AI investing

• …and more! 😃 

💡 Here are a few key takeaways from our conversation (you can watch the full interview here):

Ryan’s Experience in Consulting at Accenture 🤝 

• Consulting can be a great fit for individuals comfortable with being the ‘CEO of their career’: Ryan worked on multiple teams at Accenture including the innovation group, and also worked with $XXXM tech accounts in chief of staff-style roles. In these multi-dimensional roles, he benefitted from having a self-starter mindset.

• Consulting offers a great opportunity to build foundational skills from communication and presenting to leading meetings. Ryan learned a lot about the interpersonal side of business and tech in the role, which has served him in his current VC role.

Transitioning Teams Internally (Ryan moved from consulting to a VC role at Accenture Ventures) 🚀 

• Ryan made the move to VC because he wanted to challenge himself with new experiences after two internships and a full year as a consultant, and he always had an interest in entrepreneurship.

• Switching to a different internal team can de-risk a job switch because it gives you more flexibility to potentially switch back if you don’t enjoy the new role.

• Take on additional projects related to your interests or ideal role: During his time in consulting at Accenture, Ryan took on additional “+1” projects focused on startup go-to-market, which ultimately helped him transition to a VC role at the firm.

Accenture Ventures Investment Thesis & Role ✏️ 

• Accenture Ventures utilizes an ‘immersive engagement model’ which accelerates the product-market fit phase of its portfolio companies. Given the firm’s relationships across the Global 2000 and Fortune 500, the team leverages unique insights, domain expertise, and access to industry experts, which allows it to offer a range of services that only Accenture can.

• Ryan’s role spans the entire investment life cycle from developing market perspectives and meeting founders to running diligence processes. A key part of his role is understanding how his team can best help elevate the success of their portfolio companies.

Trends in AI That Ryan is Excited About 💻️ 

• Verticalization and specialization are two trends in AI that Ryan has observed — clients are increasingly looking for models that solve specific problems within their company and tech stack.

• AI is an augmentation tool, not just an automation tool. Accenture did a study that suggests ~40% of all working hours will be impacted by AI.

• Accenture recently unveiled its model switchboard offering, which allows clients to utilize AI models from multiple providers and allow them to actively adapt to the changing needs of their business instead of just picking one model.

• Responsible AI will be a critical component in scaling enterprise adoption of GenAI — every GenAI project should be a Responsible AI project.

General Career Advice ✨ 

• Overcome your initial fear of reaching out to new people. People are usually open to chatting, especially if you are purposeful with the time of others and come in with an agenda and a perspective on what you want to learn.

• Find a personal ‘board of directors’ to mentor you throughout your career. At Accenture, Ryan found mentors both in consulting and VC to help him throughout his transition to his new role. Especially as a junior professional, you have a unique opportunity because people are especially willing to mentor you.

• Take full advantage of internships to try things you would never do before - looking back, Ryan would have loved to mix up his summer experiences with a service trip or travel.

• Find the aspects of your job that you love, and maximize those - find the things that give you energy and fill your cup, then find ways to translate and optimize for them throughout your career.

• Unplugging from social media has greatly helped Ryan decompress and stop worrying about uncontrollables (fun fact: Ryan has his phone on grayscale, truly walking the walk 🙌 )

My Favorite Quotes from Ryan 🧠 

• “It takes a village.. innovation doesn’t happen just because one person does it.”

• “If you are the CEO of your own career, you should find your board of directors.”

• “When you are early in your career and particularly new in any given company or role, you have a pretty unique opportunity to get on people’s calendars… everyone is willing to mentor or chat with the new person.”

• “We are living through a series of paradigm shifts in AI.”

• “Every AI project should be a responsible AI project, and every company should be a responsible AI company.”

Share Your Feedback 💫 

What do you think of the series so far? Want to suggest a future guest? Let me know below 🙂 

Refer a Friend 👭 

Enjoying the newsletter? Click the button below to refer a friend 🙂 

Say Hi! 👋 

And that’s all for this week!

You can find Ryan on LinkedIn or via email at [email protected] 🙌 

You can find me on LinkedIn, Instagram, and X. As always, feel free to reach out to [email protected] with any questions or feedback. I’d love to hear from you! 🙂 

-Mic