Molly Alter wears many hats. She's a mockumentary filmmaker working on a project about an alternate reality where charades are big business. She's a Caesar salad expert who chronicles rankings of different restaurant endeavors on her blog, JULIUS. She's also Northzone's newest partner.
Alter's path to venture capital was far from obvious: the daughter of journalist parents, she grew up indulging in creative passions like theater and improvisational comedy. These interests formed the basis for the company she started at Harvard University filming a cappella concerts and dance recitals, and ultimately led her to venture capital.
She told TechCrunch that she only started the company as a way to make money because it was better than her other job cleaning toilets, but it grew into a full-fledged business with 27 employees. Then Insight Partners messaged her on Facebook Messenger, asking her to join their analyst program.
“I went to Insight straight out of college,” says Alter, a Harvard graduate. “My thinking was that I'm not from this world and I don't know anything about different businesses and business models. I have a lot to learn about entrepreneurship. I plan to get a broad range of experience and then start my next company in a few years.”
She ended up not starting another business and has been in venture ever since. After spending about five years at Insight, she moved to Index's London office as a partner in 2020. In 2023, she moved to Northzone and was based in New York City. She has now been promoted to partner at the firm and will continue to focus on vertical software. Northzone is a multi-stage firm that currently backs US and European startups from its 10th fund of €1.1 billion.
Alter thought she'd return to entrepreneurship, but realized venture capital was a better fit, and the foundation for that career was always there, even if she didn't realize it: As a child, she said, she was always curious and fascinated by how things were made and where they came from, even down to the bread you use to make toast.
“What investing in innovation essentially does is figure out how things are working as they are and how they can be made better,” Alter said.
Alter said he likes that being a venture capitalist means he has to dig deep into a subject and learn all of the details. He said the investment in GovDash is a good example of that. While software for government contracting might not be all that interesting on the surface, Alter said he was fascinated by the intricacies of it all, including how even government contracts for cleaning staff need to be vetted for potential fraud.
“This is really exciting work,” Alter says. “You learn about the things in front of you, how they work now, and if they're broken, how can you fix them as an entrepreneur?”
Alter believes her creative background and current activities make her a better investor. One direct example is her interest in film, which led her to a Series C investment in Frame.io in 2019 while at Insight. The company was building a cloud-based video collaboration platform, and Alter quickly understood the need for it due to her past experience in the film industry. The company subsequently raised around $90 million before being sold to Adobe in 2021 for $1.3 billion.
She adds that she thinks it helps in less tangible ways, too: She likes that having other things to talk about with founders helps them relax and not feel like they have to talk about their company 24/7.
“I have really diverse interests, which helps me build stronger relationships with founders and build the trust to weather any challenges,” Alter said.
Venture capital isn't always an easy job, Alter said, but she's ready to focus on investing in her latest role. She wants to cut through the noise around AI to find startups with real potential, and she remains bullish on vertical software and investments coming out of New York.
“I think there were times when I felt like I was exerting that grit and pushing a stone up a hill,” Alter said. “It wasn't easy, but I truly felt like this was the right industry for me. The test of that is whether you're excited to start the week of meeting founders on Sunday night, or whether you dread Sundays. On Sundays in the North Zone, I'm itching.”