How We Met Geri – Another Serendipitous Moment

This is part 4 of 10 of our 10 Years of Laconia series.

There’s something funny about serendipity – you never know when it’s going to raise its head. In building Laconia, we’ve experienced more than our fair share of these moments. One of the best examples? Meeting Geri Kirilova.

It was a cold and wet Monday night in the fall of 2015. One of our LPs was celebrating her 50th birthday at an Irish pub in the Financial District. I’ll be honest: I wasn’t exactly thrilled about going. It was miserable outside, I lived uptown, and the thought of schlepping downtown was far from enticing. But this person meant a lot to me, and I couldn’t miss the chance to give her a big birthday hug. (Yes, I’m a hugger.) So, I pulled on my coat, hopped on the 6 train, and off I went.

The party was on the second floor of the pub. I climbed the stairs, and as I reached the top, I bumped into an industry peer. Standing next to him was a young woman with wild hair – the kind of hair you don’t forget. We exchanged quick small talk, and I learned she was a senior at NYU Stern. It was one of those blink-and-you-miss-it moments – maybe a minute with the peer and 30 seconds with the young woman before I moved on. I made my way through the room, doing my rounds: hug, kiss, hug, kiss. Thirty minutes later, I was back on the 6 train, headed uptown, thinking little of it.

A few weeks later, David and I were having a working lunch. We were tossing around the idea of bringing on an intern – yes, a paid intern – to help us with some projects. And out of nowhere, I thought of the young woman I’d met that rainy night. I told David, “I met this young lady at a birthday party. She made a strong first impression.” That was it. We decided to reach out.

Fast forward: That young woman was Geri Kirilova. Today, Geri is our third pillar and Laconia, our LPs, and the founders we support are all better off because of her. What started as a brief, forgettable moment at an Irish pub turned into one of the most serendipitous decisions we ever made.

Geri’s growth from intern to Partner has been nothing short of extraordinary. Her tenacity, judgment, and keen understanding of early-stage investing have played a critical role in shaping Laconia into what it is today. 

As for serendipity? Sometimes you just have to take the 6 train on a rainy night, climb the stairs, and say hello.

Jeffrey Silverman

If We Knew How Hard Building a VC Fund Would Be, We Might Not Have Started

This is part 3 of 10 of our 10 Years of Laconia Series.

When you’re angel investing, you’re playing with your own capital. Maybe you bring along a friend or two, and you’re taking risks that are, at the end of the day, yours to own. It’s exciting, it’s personal, and it’s flexible.

But starting a venture fund? That’s an entirely different game. Suddenly, you’re not just betting your own money—you’re responsible for other people’s capital. With that comes fiduciary responsibility, a term that doesn’t get thrown around lightly. It’s not just a legal obligation—it’s a promise. A promise to make decisions that are in the best interest of your investors, to manage their capital responsibly, and to build a level of trust that can’t be broken. It means no shortcuts, no excuses, and no putting your ego ahead of the people who believed in you.

At the time, we thought, how hard could this be? We loved angel investing, we’d been operators for years, and we had built strong networks. But what we quickly learned is that building a venture fund is so much more than just finding amazing founders and backing them. It’s about creating a foundation that balances vision, discipline, and long-term responsibility, and that’s a far bigger challenge than we ever imagined.

We understood the importance of fiduciary responsibility from our years as operators. Running businesses taught us the weight of accountability—to our teams, boards, and stakeholders. But launching a fund took it to another level. This time, it wasn’t just about day-to-day operations. It was about building fund management systems and tools that would stand the test of time: audits, quarterly and annual reports that would follow the fund for its entire lifetime, and figuring out everything from asset allocation strategy to recycling capital. The processes we put in place mattered as much as the deals we made. This wasn’t just about investing—it was about operating a financial institution.

Part of building something hard is knowing your strengths—and your weaknesses. Out of the gate, I (Jeffrey) knew David was the right partner. Where I saw my own shortcomings, David filled the gaps. He brought a sharp financial mind and an extreme eye for detail—qualities that would be critical as we moved from writing small checks to managing institutional capital.

On the other side, I was the extrovert to his introvert. If David lived in the numbers, I lived in the room—building relationships, telling our story, and creating momentum. It wasn’t just that we liked each other; it was that we complemented each other in ways that made us better as a team.

More importantly, we had a tremendous amount of mutual respect for each other. If I liked a deal and he didn’t—or vice versa—we never let it become a dead end. Instead, we’d ask each other, “What does the other see that I don’t?” That respect pushed us to think harder, dig deeper, and make better decisions. We never argued or let ego get in the way. It wasn’t about being right; it was about getting it right. That mindset created a foundation of trust that carried us through the toughest moments and set the tone for how we would operate as partners.

We were cautious with our first fund. Truthfully, we weren’t sure if this “venture thing” was going to become our next career. We were curious, excited, and maybe a little unsure of what we were really signing up for. So we set the bar low—or what we thought was low at the time—and decided to raise a $5 million fund.

And yes, we knew this wasn’t the direct path to getting rich—a $5 million fund with a 2% management fee and 20% carry; you can all do the math. Prior success provided us with the path to test these waters out. Our focus was to see if we could build, run, and succeed in running a venture fund. Right or wrong, building the Laconia brand or nurturing and growing our LP pipeline took a back seat. As soon as we closed that first fund, we put our heads down and focused on executing.

We can’t begin to tell you how grateful we are to the friends and former colleagues who believed in us before we fully believed in ourselves. They were the ones who stepped up to be our first LPs. Looking back, those early commitments weren’t just about the money—they were votes of confidence that gave us the courage to take the leap.

Starting Laconia was harder than we ever expected. But looking personally and professionally, we’re so glad we didn’t know just how hard it would be as we find ourselves today blessed with the people we get to work with day in and day out and grateful for the job we have.


Jeffrey Silverman

Our Path From Operator to Angel to VC

This is part 2 of 10 of our 10 Years of Laconia Series.

Serendipity. It’s a word we both love and one that truly captures how we see the world. By definition, it’s about stumbling into something good without really looking for it. But to us, serendipity is more intentional—it’s about being open to possibilities, curious about the unexpected, and ready to follow where life takes you.

The formation of Laconia was all about serendipity. There was no roadmap, no master plan to build a venture capital firm. It started with a casual bar conversation about angel investing with a close friend—one of those “off the cuff, over a drink” chats that you don’t expect to lead anywhere. But it sparked something.

From there, it was a series of moments we could never have predicted. Each of us started doing angel deals without a real understanding of the investment side. We were founders and operators at heart—building businesses was second nature, but investing? That was a whole new world.

Eventually, our curiosity about angel investing led us to The New York Angels, where we both found an opportunity to meet like-minded individuals and learn how to approach investing with a bit more structure. It was there that our paths officially crossed.

We say officially because, as we got to know each other, we uncovered a pretty wild realization: serendipity had been at work long before that NY Angels meeting. We had unknowingly lived just a block apart in NYC for 15-plus years. Our kids were not only at the same school—they rode the same bus every morning. And professionally, our firms had even done business with each other without us ever putting the pieces together.

At this point, Jeff—being the more social of the two of us—was already hosting quarterly dinners with friends and former colleagues who were also curious about angel investing. These weren’t stuffy, formal meetings. They were casual, convivial nights filled with great food, great conversation, a shared interest in something new, and the joy of bringing old and new friends together.

At each dinner, Jeff would bring along 3-4 founders he liked to pitch the group. The idea wasn’t just about writing checks. It was about rolling up our sleeves, sharing expertise, and leveraging our personal and professional networks to help these early-stage companies succeed.

Then, in August of 2014, the group pushed us in a direction we hadn’t even considered. Over dinner, someone asked Jeff: “Why aren’t you doing a venture fund? You seem to not only like investing and mentoring, but you’re pretty good at it.”

Jeff—never one to enjoy working solo—admitted he was interested but needed a partner. That’s when David raised his hand and said, “I’d explore this idea with you.”

The next six months were all about mapping out the type of venture fund we wanted to build. We knew two things for certain: we wanted to stick with what we knew, and we wanted to do it our way.

As operators, we had spent our careers building businesses in the B2B space, so staying focused there was a no-brainer. We also wanted to be shoulder to shoulder with founders, rolling up our sleeves and leveraging our operating experience to help them execute and scale. That’s why focusing on Pre-Seed and Seed stage companies made the most sense.

At the same time, we couldn’t ignore what we loved most about angel investing: the collaboration. Those dinners taught us that when you bring the right people together—people who genuinely care about a founder’s success—you create a multiplier effect that’s hard to beat. We wanted to bring that spirit of collaboration and partnership into the very DNA of the fund.

By early 2015, we had our vision. It wasn’t just about writing checks; it was about building a venture fund that felt as hands-on, connected, and collaborative as those early dinners had been.

And with that, Laconia was born. We didn’t plan it, but step by step—through serendipity, curiosity, and collaboration—we built something that matters. Looking back, we wouldn’t have it any other way.

David Arcara & Jeffrey Silverman

Portfolio Spotlight: Sunairio

Congratulations to our portfolio company, Sunairio, for successfully closing their latest $6.4M funding round led by Buoyant Ventures alongside Constellation Technology Ventures and MassMutual Ventures Climate Tech Fund.

We co-led Sunairio's first round alongside Thin Line Capital, Intelis Capital and MVP Capital back in 2022. When we invest as early as pre-seed, we look for strong founder expertise and signs of market demand validation. Sunairio’s founder and CEO, Rob Cirincione demonstrated both in spades. A former energy trader with deep energy industry domain expertise, he brings a unique vision to an increasingly urgent problem.

Sunairio is the first software company to leverage high-resolution climate data to simulate energy asset risk and grid variability. Unlike traditional, computationally intense, physics-based climate models that only predict average regional weather, Sunairio incorporates advanced statistics and generative AI to produce site-specific, asset-level climate simulations that integrate with existing energy modeling tools to support commercial decision making.


As more companies transition towards renewable energy – and as climate change makes forecasting more challenging – Sunario becomes more and more critical to reducing risk and uncertainty, improving planning, and driving impact.

We’re excited to support Sunairio’s continued growth.