Promotions at Equal Ventures: Congratulations to Chelsea & Simran!

We have high ambitions for 2022 and one of the things we’re most excited about is the team we are assembling at Equal Ventures. We believe strongly in our core values and are fortunate to work alongside individuals who not only exude incredible performance and integrity, but the epitome of these values. Seeing the growth of our team, as a whole and the individuals within, is one of the most rewarding parts of building a company, and we’ve been fortunate to see the incredible growth of our team members over the last year.

With that, we’re excited to announce the promotion of Chelsea Zhang to Senior Associate and Simran Suri to Associate.

Chelsea initially joined as an intern in January of 2020. As you can imagine, it’s been a whirlwind since then with her joining us full-time in September 2020. We initially brought on Chelsea to help us answer the question “what would happen if digital grocery adoption accelerated?” Little did we know that the pandemic would push that acceleration forward faster than we ever felt possible. As we saw the trend line moving in real-time, Chelsea was bringing real-world experience from her past client experiences at LEK. Her work played a major role contributing to our investment into Starday Foods and expanding our overall conviction in the future of food. Chelsea focuses on Supply Chain and Retail for us, working closely with our companies in those spaces. 

Simran joined us in July 2020, directly after finishing her undergraduate degree at Johns Hopkins. Our team had been targeting an experienced Associate hire, but was intrigued by Simran’s passion for entrepreneurship. While she was less experienced than we had initially targeted, her case and references blew us away, leading to us extending her an offer. Joining a venture firm remotely, let alone one that is new and evolving like Equal, is not easy. Simran had to learn the ropes of venture without ever having met any of her team members in person for almost her entire first year working for us. This situation would have been impossible for others, but she handled it masterfully, finding new and innovative ways to contribute to our firm. She’s become a recognized expert in several of our core verticals, having been cited in TechCrunch, CTVC and other industry publications. Simran focuses heavily on opportunities in Climate and the Care Economy, working closely with our companies in those spaces. 

Please join us in congratulating Chelsea and Simran on their promotions. We are incredibly thankful for their contributions to Equal and helping to forge our fledgling firm into what it is today. We encourage folks to reach out to them on Twitter at @zchelseaz and @simrangsuri.