Daniela is a Principal at Dawn and invests across automation, vertical AI and financial services.

I started my post-university career in consulting hoping that I would find the sector for me. What I found was that, regardless of sector, the businesses tended to be powerful incumbents trying to slowly turn the steamship of business by a degree or two. Meanwhile, zippy speedboats were overtaking left, right, and centre. I wanted to be closer to that…but they couldn’t afford McKinsey.

That took me to Capital on Tap where I joined the newly founded Growth Team and quickly learned that titles don’t mean much but getting stuff done does. And so I did - partnerships, marketing, collections, loyalty, onboarding to name a few.

At Dawn I’m privileged to be a small part of a huge number of journeys. Having experienced the chaos from the other side, I have a huge appreciation for businesses serving complex and non-technical customers where at least half the secret-sauce is persuading users to adopt a new solution. For that you need a clear vision and an unapologetically commercial team.

Outside of Dawn I spend most of my time telling anyone that the best way to get around London is on a bike - the only predictable way to get from A to B, rain or shine.