Promoting Our Values
We are proud to announce Lotti Siniscalco as Partner and Yaz El-Baba as Senior Associate
It is always an honor to announce promotions and to ensure that members of our team receive recognition and attention for outstanding work. But at Emergence, we have even more reason to celebrate. Promotions reflect the exemplary work and success of the individual, but because we primarily fill our ranks from within, promotions also signal the strength of our team and our culture of mentoring, coaching, and challenging each other toward excellence.
We built our firm on an apprenticeship model of hiring high-potential associates and cultivating their immense potential from within. Aside from our founders, every General Partner started at Emergence as a junior investment professional. For nearly two decades, this model has paid dividends by preserving not only our investment quality but also our collaborative, values-based culture.
Today, Emergence is proud to celebrate two exciting moves: Lotti Siniscalco has been promoted to Partner, and Yaz El-Baba is now Senior Associate. Lotti and Yaz are distinguished members of the firm’s investment team whose hard work and talent we cherish.
Lotti Siniscalco, Partner
Lotti joined Emergence in 2018 and quickly became an invaluable member of the team. In less than three years, Lotti was promoted from Senior Associate to Principal, and now Partner. She continually amazes us; her strong investor acumen and long-term perspective are instrumental in uncovering compelling and unique investment opportunities and in leading operational change. Lotti has an outstanding ability to understand complex business structures and to apply that knowledge both in her diligence and at the board table. A natural leader, Lotti’s presence commands attention; she possesses a rare combination of IQ and EQ that makes her a valued partner to our team, our founders alike, and everyone she meets.
An immigrant from Italy, Lotti is passionate about using her platform to support founders from all walks of life pursue their paths to entrepreneurship, especially women, underrepresented minorities, and entrepreneurs from non-traditional backgrounds. Driven by the strong conviction that diversity is an asset, Lotti sees this target group of entrepreneurs as poised to change the way the world works. As she explains, “I am committed to building a strong, connective community for more underrepresented minorities to become the next generation of enterprise/B2B founders.”
As part of her efforts, Lotti provides widely-accessible educational on-ramps to founders of all backgrounds and experiences here on the Emergence blog and as part of her quarterly Female Founder "MIP" events. She covers everything from actionable pitch advice for first-time founders to the essentials of creating a dynamic board of directors.
Most recently, Lotti led funding for Talent Hack’s $17 million Series A, marking one of the software industry’s largest Series A fundraises for a company with a Latina founder and CEO. For Lotti, this is just the beginning. Lotti serves on the boards of High Alpha and Whistic, and as a board observer to Convex, Oyster, and Talent Hack.
Deeply connected to our firm’s longest-held principles, Lotti works with conviction, strives to be a founder’s Most Important Partner, and remains focused on long term success. Throughout her tenure at Emergence, Lotti has established herself as a truly phenomenal investment professional with insights and wisdom to teach us all.
Yaz El-Baba, Senior Associate
Yaz joined the firm in 2019 as an associate, and his promotion to Senior Associate comes from two years of impeccable work and the large footprint he has already made on the firm, the team, and the founders we back. Yaz has made outsized contributions to the investment team. This includes rebuilding the firm’s deal sourcing infrastructure using data-driven methodologies. The new process accounts for more than 50 percent of the firm’s high-quality deal flow. Yaz also juggles a multitude of other responsibilities, including running firm-wide processes, conducting deep technical diligence, and leading thematic research.
One of the most impressive qualities Yaz brings is his disciplined work ethic, honed through his years as a competitive boxer and captain of the University of Michigan Boxing team. Yaz applies 110% to everything he does, or as he so concisely put it in his bio, “Embrace the grind.” Yaz always carries himself with humility and positivity. He is passionate about his work and it shows; people want to work with him. Currently, Yaz is a board observer at Maze.
A Palestinian-American, Yaz grew up in an extended entrepreneurial family. He brings a unique and global perspective to his work at Emergence. His critical acumen and sensitivity to emerging trends are matched only by a rare generosity of spirit. Yaz is always on the lookout for ways to help everyone around him. His team-oriented persuasion stems from his experiences as a boxer, though he admits it might seem counterintuitive at first glance.
As he explains, "To people on the outside, boxing and investing may seem like solo endeavors. As captain of Michigan's boxing team, I fought this misconception by nurturing a true team-first approach, knowing that a fighter can only be as strong as the people they train with and learn from.”
At Emergence, Yaz has trained with and learned from his peers at an exceptional rate, keeping us all energized and on our toes.
Congratulations to Lotti and Yaz for much-deserved promotions, and to the entire team that mentored, challenged, and cheered them on toward such phenomenal success.
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