On the TechTO stage ×1
First seen on the TechTO stage in 2021. Every talk is searchable — ask the archive about Laith ↗
In their words
I work with the pre-Series A companies, but I also manage and lead all our partnerships and relationships with the different incubators and accelerators across the country.
We have about 25,000 clients, of which you've got around three to four thousand venture capital and private equity firms. Because of that wide breadth, there's a lot of insights we've learned between what's going on on the funder side and the founder side.
We have a whole insights team based in San Francisco that every quarter gets together, talks to all the different branches, all the different countries, and tries to get both a qualitative and a quantitative sentiment on what's going on in the market.
More from TechTO ×1
Quick answers
What does Laith Shukri do now?
He is director of early stage banking at RBCx, Royal Bank of Canada's technology and innovation arm, a role he has held since 2022. It is close to the brief he described on the TechTO stage a year earlier at Silicon Valley Bank: pre-Series A founders plus the incubators and accelerators around them.
What was his role at Silicon Valley Bank?
Senior market development manager on SVB's Canada team from December 2019 to June 2022. He told TechTO he wore two hats — working with pre-Series A companies, and leading the bank's partnerships with accelerators, incubators and founder-support organisations across the country.
Where did SVB's market research come from?
He described a dedicated insights team in San Francisco that polled every branch and country each quarter for qualitative and quantitative sentiment, then cross-checked it against CRM data and outside sources. His figures on stage: roughly 25,000 clients, 35-plus years, 44 cities, nine countries — as of September 2021.