Tamara Steffens knows how to sell—but doesn’t think a lot of startups do.
And with the current AI boom, it’s a skill that’s especially critical for startups with technically complex tech needing to communicate with business customers, she told PitchBook.
Steffens, who heads Thomson Reuters’ corporate venture arm, got her start during the early days of email, cutting her teeth at six startups that all went public or got acquired. She eventually jumped to the other side, landing as the head of Microsoft’s CVC M12 before joining her current employer in 2022.
Thomson Reuters Ventures has made big investments in AI startups like Spellbook, a legal-tech company focused on contract drafting, and Neo.Tax, which operates an accounting automation platform. In February, it announced a fresh $150 million to invest in more startups.
PitchBook sat down with Steffens to discuss Thomson Reuters Ventures’ investment strategy, what companies can do to stand out and the landscape for female founders.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
PitchBook: You worked at several startups before flipping sides and becoming an investor. What unique perspective do you think you bring when approaching potential investments?
It really all comes from my experience in running sales and what the cost of sale is when you start a company. I am really looking at it all from a perspective of how effective you can be in selling. I’ve always run sales and business development in the companies and startups I was in, and I tend to look at those pieces and how efficient you can be in selling.
The tech stack does matter, of course. You have to have good technology. But if you see what happens in tech, it isn’t always the first one to win. It is very much like March Madness; you can have a Cinderella enter the mix and do just fine and better.
Do you think there’s been a problem of companies not knowing how to sell AI?
You know, we’ve had companies come in where we thought the idea was really good and we understood it from our venture team perspective, but we couldn’t explain it to our corporate tax department.
Well, if you can’t explain it to our corporate tax department and we’re a tax company, how the heck are you going to sell it to the next guy?
That’s not to say we wouldn’t invest, but we’re going to have to help them refine their messaging because it should be like selling candy to kids, right? You better be able to explain what it is. I do think that’s key in early-stage startups, being able to position your product in a way that people can buy it.
The firm has been pretty prolific thus far. Can you break down what the strategy is and how that balances with Thomson Reuters’ greater needs?
We only invest in what we know. We do look at how our investments can augment what [Thomson Reuters is] doing and help our customers. But we do it all for financial returns, we’re not investing from a strategic vantage point. And really, we’re looking at categories with AI where you can get a really quick return on investment, and with legal and tax, that’s pretty evident.
We’re pretty lucky because much of the tech we look at absolutely has that evident return.
But in some areas like AI infrastructure, that’s really harder to understand that ROI. It’s not to say we don’t make them, but it’s harder, those are harder to determine where the ROI is. I really do like tax and legal.
Thomson Reuters over the past two years has aggressively been making acquisitions. Since 2023 it’s spent over $2 billion. Is future M&A actively something you think about when making investments?
Yeah, our strategy is not focused on that. It’s not what we think of when we go to make an investment. We really do think more about how we can get a return. We invest in what we know, and it’s certainly in the wheelhouse and possible, but we don’t look at, we don’t invest for the intention of, “Yeah someday [Thomson Reuters is] going to acquire these companies.”
And lastly, one area you’ve been particularly passionate about is getting more women into the venture space. Do you think the landscape is getting better?
It feels like it is getting better, I’m hopeful, but I don’t know the actual numbers. What I do know is, I think we move in the right direction a little bit every year. Is it fast enough? Probably not. I am hopeful, at least encouraged that it will move in the right direction, but it’s still not enough, it’s still slow.
Featured image by Chole Ladwig/PitchBook News
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