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Deena Shakir

General Partner, Lux Capital · 1 appearance on the record, plus 1 compilation re-air.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

investorexecutivepoliticianauthor@deenashakir ↗LinkedIn ↗deenashakir.com ↗Wikipedia ↗

Deena Shakir is a General Partner at Lux Capital, where she focuses on digital health, health equity, and fintech investments. She was previously a partner at GV, led product partnerships at Google, and served in the U.S. Department of State.

13statements → 3claims → 3claims resolved → 67%fully supported → 4/5average certainty → 2.18/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated →

2 supported 1 partly supported 0 contradicted how the 3 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

3 assertions · 2 opinions · 7 insights · 1 disclosure · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 3 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 3 are resolved. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Deena argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Shakir: VC funding for all-female founding teams dropped to 2%
“In terms of the percentage of dollars deployed to solo female founders or women-only founding teams, it's dropped down to two percent, the lowest number since 2016.”
Deena Shakir Apr 25, 2022 ▶ 25:54 20VC: Why You Should Think Twice Before Taking Multi-Stage Money at Seed, Why Venture Has Never Been Less Collaborative, How Becoming a Parent Made Me a Better Investor and Why We Should Be Optimistic About the Future of Diversity in Venture with Deena Sh

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
100% certainty 3
100% certainty 4
50% certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

How they sound: speaking style how? →

258 words/min while actually speaking · 0.4 um and uh per 1k words

No argument clarity score for Deena Shakir: no usable question→answer exchanges on raw tape (a fair score needs 8+). We do not score a sample that small. Roundtable and news formats yield far fewer direct exchanges than interviews. Their coarse estimate from 24 exchanges on the produced feed is ≈4.5/5, shown at half point precision because the sample is small and produced tape scores higher.

Measured by listening to 5,081 words across 1 episode, but every recording we have of Deena Shakir is the aired feed, and an editor cleaned that audio before release. Some of the hesitation was cut before we ever heard it, so read these as floors: the true rates are at least this high. These are measurements of speaking style, not scores. How it's measured →

How the interview went all their pushback → series average →

Across 2 rated episodes:

host pushback ▾ 3/10
pushed back at the host ▾ 3.5/10
setup questions received 70%

Everything Deena Shakir said on 20VC that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight
Shakir: Multi-stage funds writing small checks won't prioritize early-stage founders
“If they're just barely giving you a couple 100,000 dollars, they're not going to have time. They're just not going to give a shit. It's not going to be a priority for them.”
Deena Shakir Apr 25, 2022 ▶ 11:42 20VC: Why You Should Think Twice Before Taking Multi-Stage Money at Seed, Why Venture Has Never Been Less Collaborative, How Becoming a Parent Made Me a Better Investor and Why We Should Be Optimistic About the Future of Diversity in Venture with Deena Sh
Insight
Shakir: Multi-stage investors skipping follow-on rounds creates major signaling risks
“It's going to look badly if they were in your prior round and don't do the next round. That ends up being a flag in a lot of cases.”
Deena Shakir Apr 25, 2022 ▶ 12:01 20VC: Why You Should Think Twice Before Taking Multi-Stage Money at Seed, Why Venture Has Never Been Less Collaborative, How Becoming a Parent Made Me a Better Investor and Why We Should Be Optimistic About the Future of Diversity in Venture with Deena Sh
Disclosure
Shakir: Building a public VC brand led to severe online harassment
“I've gotten, like, rape threats. I've gotten some weirdo DMing me that he's gonna come eat my pets. I don't even have pets.”
Deena Shakir Apr 25, 2022 ▶ 19:05 20VC: Why You Should Think Twice Before Taking Multi-Stage Money at Seed, Why Venture Has Never Been Less Collaborative, How Becoming a Parent Made Me a Better Investor and Why We Should Be Optimistic About the Future of Diversity in Venture with Deena Sh
Opinion
Shakir: Fast VC investment decisions prevent founders from understanding investor dynamics
“The fact that these decisions can be made so quickly without any real insight into what that dynamic is like with the investor, I think is really problematic.”
Deena Shakir Apr 25, 2022 ▶ 8:36 20VC: Why You Should Think Twice Before Taking Multi-Stage Money at Seed, Why Venture Has Never Been Less Collaborative, How Becoming a Parent Made Me a Better Investor and Why We Should Be Optimistic About the Future of Diversity in Venture with Deena Sh
Assertion Supported
Shakir: VC funding for all-female founding teams dropped to 2%
“In terms of the percentage of dollars deployed to solo female founders or women-only founding teams, it's dropped down to two percent, the lowest number since 2016.”
Deena Shakir Apr 25, 2022 ▶ 25:54 20VC: Why You Should Think Twice Before Taking Multi-Stage Money at Seed, Why Venture Has Never Been Less Collaborative, How Becoming a Parent Made Me a Better Investor and Why We Should Be Optimistic About the Future of Diversity in Venture with Deena Sh
Insight
Shakir: A parenting book is the best leadership reading for startup founders
“One of the best books I love to have founders read about leadership is not a business book, but a book called How to Talk So Your Kids Will Listen and Listen So Your Kids Will Talk.”
Deena Shakir May 4, 2022 ▶ 27:27 20VC: The Memo: Chris Sacca on Why We Are Breeding a Generation of Entitled Assholes, Harley Finkelstein on What Great Fatherhood Really Means, Deena Shakir on How Kids Make You a Better Investor and Anne Wojcicki on How Children Change Your Approach to R
Insight
Shakir: Having children boosts hourly productivity via ruthless prioritization
“The reality of what happened to me, which is that time means something different after you have kids. The amount that you can produce in an hour changes, and I don't know if it's magical superpower or some hormonal thing. It's probably not, but I think it is t…”
Deena Shakir May 4, 2022 ▶ 29:51 20VC: The Memo: Chris Sacca on Why We Are Breeding a Generation of Entitled Assholes, Harley Finkelstein on What Great Fatherhood Really Means, Deena Shakir on How Kids Make You a Better Investor and Anne Wojcicki on How Children Change Your Approach to R
Insight
Shakir recommends a popular parenting book as an essential founder leadership guide
“And one of the best books I love to have founders read about leadership is not a business book, but a book called How to Talk So Your Kids Will Listen and Listen So Your Kids Will Talk.”
Deena Shakir Apr 25, 2022 ▶ 22:19 20VC: Why You Should Think Twice Before Taking Multi-Stage Money at Seed, Why Venture Has Never Been Less Collaborative, How Becoming a Parent Made Me a Better Investor and Why We Should Be Optimistic About the Future of Diversity in Venture with Deena Sh
Insight
Shakir: Resolve high-stakes business conflicts using parenting de-escalation tactics
“What it takes is to get them into a small space, a quiet room, literally put yourself, sit down, put your face at their level, hear them. So instead of trying to convince them, stop crying. Why are you crying? This is irrational. I hear you. I know that really…”
Deena Shakir Apr 25, 2022 ▶ 23:09 20VC: Why You Should Think Twice Before Taking Multi-Stage Money at Seed, Why Venture Has Never Been Less Collaborative, How Becoming a Parent Made Me a Better Investor and Why We Should Be Optimistic About the Future of Diversity in Venture with Deena Sh
Insight
Shakir: Aspiring VCs should pitch specific deals instead of asking to network
“So rather than asking for someone's time, for the love of God, please don't ask me to freaking pick my brain, which reminds me of the COVID test stick going up. I mean, that is like the worst words you can hear. Tell me something interesting. Tell me is a comp…”
Deena Shakir Apr 25, 2022 ▶ 27:58 20VC: Why You Should Think Twice Before Taking Multi-Stage Money at Seed, Why Venture Has Never Been Less Collaborative, How Becoming a Parent Made Me a Better Investor and Why We Should Be Optimistic About the Future of Diversity in Venture with Deena Sh
Opinion
Shakir advises against attending graduate school immediately after undergrad
“Straight to grad school, which I really do not recommend, by the way”
Deena Shakir Apr 25, 2022 ▶ 5:36 20VC: Why You Should Think Twice Before Taking Multi-Stage Money at Seed, Why Venture Has Never Been Less Collaborative, How Becoming a Parent Made Me a Better Investor and Why We Should Be Optimistic About the Future of Diversity in Venture with Deena Sh
Assertion Supported
Shakir: Mixed-gender co-founding teams received 15.6% of 2021 venture funding
“I think 15.6% in 2021. They're founding teams that had a woman, but also a male co-founder.”
Deena Shakir Apr 25, 2022 ▶ 26:12 20VC: Why You Should Think Twice Before Taking Multi-Stage Money at Seed, Why Venture Has Never Been Less Collaborative, How Becoming a Parent Made Me a Better Investor and Why We Should Be Optimistic About the Future of Diversity in Venture with Deena Sh
Assertion Partly supported
Shakir: 47% of Harvard's 2007 class entered banking or consulting
“At the time, literally 47% of the class before mine went into investment banking or consulting.”
Deena Shakir Apr 25, 2022 ▶ 5:53 20VC: Why You Should Think Twice Before Taking Multi-Stage Money at Seed, Why Venture Has Never Been Less Collaborative, How Becoming a Parent Made Me a Better Investor and Why We Should Be Optimistic About the Future of Diversity in Venture with Deena Sh

Appearances (2)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
20VC: The Memo: Chris Sacca on Why We Are Breeding a Generation of Entitled Assholes, Harl compilation May 4, 2022 3m
20VC: Why You Should Think Twice Before Taking Multi-Stage Money at Seed, Why Venture Has Apr 25, 2022 21m
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