Eva Ho

Who they are

Eva Ho is General Partner at Fika Ventures — she co-founded the firm in 2016 and also founded Navigating Cancer, a health startup, and The Greetery, an online stationery company.

Person

Eva graduated from Harvard with a BA in 1994, then earned an MBA from Cornell Johnson in 1998 — the classic foundation for what became an unusually wide operator-to-investor arc. She came up through early internet-era companies, including Overture Services and MyLife.com, before a stint with the City of Los Angeles and a role as Entrepreneur-in-Residence. Along the way she founded three businesses: Navigating Cancer (a Seattle-based health startup, 2008), The Greetery (an online stationery company), and Sway Ventures (a venture capital firm). She joined Fika Ventures in October 2016 when it was a boutique seed fund investing in data, AI-enabled technologies, and automation, and has built it to over $350 million in assets under management. In 2024, TechCrunch reported she would step back from Fika after its current fund is deployed — and she launched Deco Base, a new startup, that same year. She co-chaired Fortune #BrainstormTech and has appeared on the LA Venture Podcast and the Vitalize Podcast speaking about the operator-to-investor transition, early-stage VC, and data and AI in startups. The through-line is someone who has done every part of the stack — built companies, run civic institutions, and written checks — and boards at Common Crawl, UCLA Technology Development Group, and the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs (since April 2026) show she keeps one foot in the public interest side of tech.

Company

In 2024, TechCrunch reported that Eva Ho would step back from Fika Ventures after its current fund is deployed — a significant transition for one of the firm's co-founders. Simultaneously, she launched Deco Base, a new startup, signaling a return to the operator seat. Fika has over $350 million in assets under management and has backed companies including FieldAI (AI and robotics) and Chowbus, with a stated focus on immigrant entrepreneurs and founder support. The firm's investment thesis centers on data, AI-enabled technologies, and automation at the seed stage.

Market

Fika Ventures operates in the seed-stage VC market with a focus on data, AI-enabled technologies, and automation — a space that has become intensely competitive as established firms and new entrants alike crowd into AI-adjacent deals. The firm is LA-based, positioning it somewhat distinctly from the densest cluster of seed funds in San Francisco. Portfolio bets on AI and robotics (FieldAI) and restaurant tech (Chowbus) reflect a broad thesis rather than a single vertical wedge.

Network

Eva mentored under Ulrich Aldag, whom she publicly honored in a LinkedIn tribute. She serves as a GP Advisor at Screendoor, which supports new and emerging VC managers, and is active with All Raise, the women-in-VC and tech organization. Her board seats at UCLA TDG, Common Crawl Foundation, and the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs reflect a network that spans academic tech transfer, open-data infrastructure, and LA civic life.

How they likely show up

  • Founded Navigating Cancer, The Greetery, and Deco Base alongside VC roles → high agency; she defaults to building, not just advising.
  • Hybrid role pattern (operator → investor → operator again with Deco Base) → comfortable crossing the line between principal and GP, likely impatient with passive observation.
  • Board seats at Common Crawl, UCLA TDG, and Pat Brown Institute → operates across commercial and public-interest domains simultaneously; thinks in systems, not just deals.
  • Active public speaking on the operator-to-investor transition (Vitalize Podcast, LA Venture Podcast, CapStack Pod) → comfortable being visible and sharing frameworks; responds well to direct, substantive questions.
  • Joined Fika in October 2016 and stayed nearly a decade through $350M+ AUM → thinks in long investment cycles, not quick flips.
  • GP Advisor at Screendoor supporting new VC managers → invests in building the next layer of the ecosystem, not just the next portfolio company.

Conversation tips

  • → Ask about the Deco Base launch specifically — she just made the deliberate choice to step back from GP work and go back to building; that decision will have a story behind it.
  • → Reference the Common Crawl board role if AI data provenance comes up — she is engaged at the infrastructure level of AI, not just the application layer.
  • → She has talked publicly about the operator-to-investor transition; if you want to go deep, ask what the transition back to operator feels like after nearly a decade on the investing side.
  • → Acknowledge the immigrant entrepreneur angle in her portfolio thesis (Chowbus) — it's a deliberate value, not just a deal theme.
  • → Don't assume she's purely a check-writer — she has founded multiple companies and is currently running one; treat her as a peer operator, not a passive capital allocator.

Toolbox

Openers

  • Open on Deco Base — she launched a new startup in 2024 while stepping back from Fika, a deliberate bet on going back to operating after nearly a decade as a GP; that choice is worth unpacking.
  • Reference the Common Crawl Foundation board seat — she joined the board of the open-data nonprofit in March 2024, a pointed commitment to open AI infrastructure from someone who invests in AI-enabled startups.
  • Mention the Screendoor GP Advisor role — she's actively helping the next generation of VC managers launch, which is a specific, non-obvious way she's spending her platform beyond her own fund.

Discovery questions

  1. You founded Navigating Cancer in 2008 and are now launching Deco Base in 2024 — what's different about being a founder now versus then?
  2. Fika's thesis centers on data, AI-enabled technologies, and automation at seed — how has the flood of capital into AI changed how you evaluate deals at that stage?
  3. You joined the Common Crawl board in March 2024 — what drew you to open data infrastructure specifically, and how does it connect to what you're seeing in your portfolio?

Avoid

Don't treat the Fika step-back as a retirement story — she launched a new company the same year, so frame it as a transition, not a wind-down.

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Sources

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Generated by briefthecall.com from public web sources on July 13, 2026. Each claim is linked to its source above.

Automatically generated by AI from public sources. May be inaccurate or out of date. Remove or correct this profile →