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Reflections on 2018: Marc Averitt, Okapi Venture Capital

Editor's note: As we head into the new year, we've been featuring reflections on 2018 from notable investors, entrepreneurs, and others from Southern California's technology community. You'll be able to browse all of those contributions here. Here's Marc Averitt of Okapi Venture Capital (www.okapivc.com).

What was the biggest lesson you learned this year?

To paraphrase one of Andy Grove’s frequent nuggets of wisdom from my time at Intel Corporation, perception is reality until proven otherwise. In 2018, I emphatically (re)learned that even in the face of overwhelming proof there will always be those that choose to create their own realities based on their subjective opinions rather than objective facts.

What was the biggest news for your company in 2018?

Since I began putting the pieces in place for Okapi in 2004, the industry as evolved dramatically as a whole but especially here in Southern California. The biggest news this year for Okapi, Southern California’s original seed stage venture capital fund, is that we ramped up the deployment of our 3rd fund and saw its portfolio grow by another 10 companies!

Are there any technology innovations, gadgets, devices, software, that you found most interesting in 2018?

The most interesting technology innovation I’ve seen this year has to be White Fox Defense Technologies’ counter-drone solution. It is truly an amazing company with HUGE potential.

Finally, what's your prediction on what will be most important thing for the technology industry in the coming year?

I think we will see the technology industry, as a whole, get much more involved politically. While the tech industry has historically remained comparatively removed from the process, 2019 will be a much different year leading into the 2020 elections.

Marc Averitt co-founded Okapi Venture Capital in 2005 and is a Managing Director of all three of Okapi’s funds and responsible for their technology investments. He has held leadership positions of increasing responsibility in business development, legal, operations, corporate development, and strategy in the technology industry since the mid-90s. Prior to founding Okapi, Marc was with Intel Corporation first as an attorney for the Microprocessor Products Group and then as the Managing Director, Strategic Business Development for the Software & Solutions Group worldwide. Prior to Intel, Marc worked for Sun Microsystems in business development and legal roles.