Rishi Sharma

Founder and Podcaster

Newlin Ventures

Newlin Ventures is a Chicago-based VC fund that invests in early-stage companies in the food, insurance, IoT, and consumer sectors.

West Coast Lead

Stealth

Founder

GoingVC Partners

As a Venture Partner for GoingVC, my efforts are focused on sourcing, pitching, and writing deals. I do extensive due diligence and market research to ensure the security of the organization's future. Since 2022 alone I have independently sourced 100+ opportunities, pitched 20+ deals to the Investment Committee, and fully led two deals from start through funding. 

Top skills utilized: relationship building, investments, due diligence, investment sourcing, pitching, ventures, risk analysis, market research

Venture Partner

Founder Institute

The Founder Institute carefully recruits 20-40 Mentors per semester, and we typically only accept Mentors that have built or led technology businesses. Our Mentors lead the weekly training sessions, and their mandate is to help our participants by sharing their experience, outlining the latest tactics, and providing critical feedback. In addition, through the Founder Institute's Shared Liquidity Pool, Mentors are strongly incentivized to help our companies after Graduation, and many have become formal advisors to our Graduate companies.

Mentor

Parentfile

Save everything that truly matters as a parent. All-in-One Place. Start adding to your Parentfile Today!

Strategic Advisor

yieldWerx Semiconductor

yieldWerx offers end-to-end semiconductor test data analytics solutions, enabling better decision making, root cause analysis, and process improvement. Our products support semiconductor engineers all the way from initial device characterization, to automated yield and quality management and finally RMA analysis.  yieldWerx enables product and test engineers with the tools and technologies necessary to characterize new ICs and test programs, speedily ramp up production at OSATs and identify and diagnose yield excursions.

Digital Peripheral Solutions (Acquired)

I began at this organization in 2012 as the Head of Direct Consumer and Customer Success. In 2017 I moved into the Head of OPs, Strategy and finance role. I specialized in leading a top team of 50 in investments, due diligence, financial analysis, and improvement initiatives. I interfaced with high-profile partners that included Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart and Costco. 

Top skills utilized: leadership, talent development, relationship building, finances, due diligence, investments, client relations, negotiations, technology optimization, P&L management

Head of Operations, Strategy, And Finance

Mallama

We know how frustrating it is to waste money on skincare products that don’t actually work.

At Mallama, we have simple natural skincare that gets results, gives you just what you need (nothing more) and bonus, helps the planet too.

the Ambitious

We are Acquired and look forward to seeing our products in seen worldwide. 

We developed fashion technology that worked seamlessly with Mobile phone and Wearables to deliver peace of mind in your lives.

Founder & CEO (Acquired)

Obama for America

Built political relationships between community leaders, the general public, and staff. Registered 1000+ supporters to vote; Recruited 150+ active volunteers. Managed the “Ask Me About Barack Obama” pilot program.

Youth Outreach Director – Organized area youth in support of civic activities.

Organizing Fellow

As the West Coast Lead at Newlin Ventures, I manage the sourcing, evaluation, and execution of early-stage investments in the food, insurance, IoT, and consumer sectors. I also provide strategic and operational guidance to our portfolio companies, leveraging my 16.5 years of experience as a founder and operator of multiple successful ventures.

I am passionate about finding and supporting entrepreneurs in solving real-world problems with innovative solutions. I have a track record of creating value and impact through my dyslexic thinking, marketing communications, and social networking skills. I am also a lifelong learner, with a VC certification from GoingVC and an IoT product management certification from Stanford University. I aim to empower the next generation of leaders and changemakers with capital, mentorship, and access to a global network.

We never talked about selling the business.
Not because we didn't think about it. Because it felt like betrayal.

I watched our family scale a security company to multiple Inc. 5000 recognitions and dodge every conversation about "what's next."

Here's what I've learned since:

Owners who plan with intention choose their legacy.
The ones who don't? The market chooses for them.

December 9th at 12pm PST — I'm hosting a live webinar with NextGen Growth Partners  and BCR Business Consulting Resources, Inc. :

"Thinking About Selling Your Family Business"
→ Why the "right time" has nothing to do with revenue
→ Buyers who want your company vs. your legacy
→ A succession path most owners have never heard of

Link in comments 👇
#FamilyBusiness #Succession #ETA #MergersAndAcquisitions

From Video Surveillance Exit to NextGen Live Security | Helping Founders Transition with Care & Unlock Growth in Physical Security

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The Quietest Companies Have the Loudest Cash Flow

A few months ago, I met the owner of a security company you’ll never find online.
No website. No LinkedIn. No ads.
Yet he clears $5 million a year in cash.

While competitors chase headlines and fundraisers, his team focuses on one thing—execution.
Their edge isn’t in branding; it’s in belief.
Clients stay an average of 9 to 12 years. Employees stay longer than most marriages.
In an industry where 100 to 400 percent turnover is common, his company keeps it under 20.
That’s not luck. It’s leadership.

Retention compounds. Churn erodes.
Every long-term client, every tenured technician, adds another layer of trust that no marketing budget can buy.

He calls it “boring work done beautifully.”
No viral campaigns. No glossy decks.
Just a team that shows up, every day, and keeps promises.

The quiet companies aren’t behind the curve. They’re building the foundation everyone else stands on.

What about you? How long do your clients or teammates stay—and what does that say about your culture?

#ETA #SMBLeadership #SecurityIndustry #OperatorLed

Today I’m thinking about leaders who learned their craft far from boardrooms.
On a flight line before dawn. In a desert where every decision mattered. At sea where the mission came before comfort.

Every veteran I’ve met carries the same throughline: duty beyond self.
That shows up in business as calm under pressure, ruthless preparation, and taking responsibility even when no one is watching.

My world revolves around protection:live monitoring, systems integration, keeping people and places safe. Veterans understand that instinctively. 

You feel it in how they train teams, how they plan, how they show up when it’s hard.

I’m grateful for your service, and for the example you keep setting long after the uniform comes off.

If you’re a veteran moving into the security industry, my inbox is open. I’m happy to help however I can. 🇺🇸

#VeteransDay #Leadership #Gratitude #Service #SecurityIndustry

I was watching Game 7, heart pounding in the ninth. The Dodgers were down, and every swing felt heavier than the last. 

Then Miguel Rojas stepped up and tied it with a solo shot. Two innings later, Will Smith sent one over the fence. Just like that, they took the lead and never gave it back.

Everyone will remember those two home runs. But what really won the game was everything that happened before them. The long at-bats. The patience. The discipline not to chase. The quiet consistency that set the stage for magic.

That’s what business feels like when it’s working. Not fireworks. Just small decisions stacking up until the score flips in your favor.

The great companies I’ve seen don’t scale on breakthroughs. They scale on:

• Operational discipline that makes hard quarters manageable
• Strategic hiring that builds strength before you need it
• Customer relationships you nurture long before renewal
• Process improvements you make after every win and loss

Every “overnight success” is really months or years of repetition that looked boring at the time.

The magic isn’t in the homerun. It’s in the patience that makes one possible.

Go Dodgers!

What’s one small, boring win that quietly compounded for you?

Not long ago I sat in a budget review and the CFO asked, “We spend millions on guard hours. What do we get for it?” 

The room went quiet, not from disagreement but from a lack of proof. That silence is starting to disappear.

The 2025 Security Benchmark Report shows programs moving from activity to impact. Hours do not stop threats. 

Outcomes do. More than half of respondents maintain formal metrics programs that define productivity and value creation. The smarter teams are replacing countables with measurables:

• Guard hours → deterrence rate at the site level
• Headcount → cost per protected asset and cost avoidance per incident type
• Incident logs → quantified risk reduction and time to control

Who is out front

Corning quantifies global security impact across manufacturing.
Gap links asset protection metrics to margin protection.
State Street benchmarks security ROI against financial services peers.
Juniper Networks, Nationwide Insurance, W. L. Gore, and Nestlé USA report similar outcome frames that translate for boards and CFOs.

When you show a 12-month payback on cameras plus response redesign, or how a three point lift in deterrence yields six-figure cost avoidance, you stop pleading for budget and start managing capital. 

Teams that benchmark consistently report stronger funding and clearer sponsorship. If you cannot measure deterrence, you cannot defend the spend.

Drop one metric in the comments that changed how your leadership values security.

Listening to David Senra’s new podcast with Todd Graves this weekend, I kept thinking: Graves didn’t guess his way to product market fit. 

He earned it by serving the same customer millions of times. 

That repetition becomes pattern recognition, and pattern recognition becomes advantage.

Security integrators who dominate a single vertical work the same way. You stop reacting to RFPs and start preventing the conditions that create them.
K–12 example: a superintendent asks for exterior cameras. 

You’ve secured 30 schools, so you already know the real issue is the lockdown handoff. 

Guards jog building to building and response time stretches to 8–12 minutes while the board target is under 3. You don’t quote cameras. 

You scope networked access control with a one-button lockdown from the admin office. They didn’t spec it. Your pattern library did.

Customer intimacy compounds in stages

Stage 1 Vendor: you price what they asked for and fight on rate

Stage 2 Preferred partner: you know the terrain, suggest upgrades, win on trust

Stage 3 Irreplaceable operator: they call you at the first hint of risk because you’ve solved it before and price yields to certainty

Senra’s conversation with Graves is a reminder to pick one customer and stay until the patterns speak. 

Most firms never reach Stage 3 in five verticals. 
They barely reach Stage 2. 
Choose one. 

Go so deep you understand their day better than they do.

What problem will your core customer face next year that they haven’t noticed yet?

The Real Competitive Edge Isn’t Software. It’s Shared Wisdom.

A few years ago I visited a founder-led security systems company in a mid-sized market. He told me, “We don’t have a formal training department or fancy tech stack. Our real classroom is our peer circle.”

Every month his field techs meet other operators, trade stories, borrow what works, and quietly level up together.

The World Economic Forum notes that more than 90 percent of all businesses are SMEs, yet many fall behind in digital transformation because they lack networks, shared learning, and know-how.

In the security world, we spend heavily on new tech but rarely invest in shared insight.

Peer-to-peer learning changes that. It replaces theory with conversation and PowerPoints with practice. The lessons stick because they come from people solving the same problems in real time.

If you’re in integration or operations, stop asking what technology you should buy and start asking who you should talk to.

Because in live security, your next big ROI probably isn’t a new camera it’s a better conversation.

Who’s your peer-learning partner right now? Are you in the room where the lessons are happening, or are you still just reading about them?

#ETA #SecurityIndustry #SMBLearning #OperatorLed #PeerLearning

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