Suril Butala

Bio

“What gets me truly excited every day is the opportunity to learn about a wide range of challenges and then collaborate with entrepreneurs who are dedicated to crafting solutions”

Before Sorenson, Suril served as an associate at Level Equity, where he specialized in late-stage technology growth equity. He’s an alumnus of the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, with a BBA in Finance. At Michigan, Suril was active in finance-oriented student volunteer organizations such as the Michigan ReSource Fund. He remains active in community involvement as a regular volunteer with non-profits serving underprivileged small businesses, specifically Start Small Think Big and Pacific Community Ventures.

“The success of an investor will ultimately be defined by how supportive they are of the teams they back.”

The most successful startups possess both a clarity of vision and a willingness to learn: Suril likes to work with founders who are transparent and candid, especially those who take feedback well and yearn for constant, actionable improvement. Suril recalls such a case with Tive, a supply chain visibility company for whom he helped build the finance infrastructure from the ground up. Working with Tive proved to be a rewarding experience on both ends– not only because of the company’s desire to re-shape its finance toolkit, but also because Tive’s CEO was enormously supportive of the management team and the pursuit of excellence in every department of the company.

“The best founders are hyper-focused on a subset of very palpable problems to solve, with a keen understanding of how they plan to expand.”

Working at Sorenson has underscored the importance of embedding scalable processes into a business early on. Companies who understand the necessity of these processes are crucial. Suril highlights the team at HVR Software (since acquired by Fivetran) for their commitment to developing an unshakeable business model: The CEO, experienced in ETL/CDC software, had had skill gaps on the GTM side, which he seamlessly bridged by asking frequent questions and opening himself up to learning opportunities. Working with HVR’s team opened Suril’s eyes to the exciting possibilities of investment in industry-experienced entrepreneurs who understand their problems lucidly (and use investors to help scale their businesses).

“The most rewarding thing about working with portfolio companies is seeing the lightbulbs go off when you surface structural GTM issues that the business is facing, which often results in a re-shaping of GTM processes with our suggestions.”

As an investor at Sorenson, Suril loves being a trusted sounding board for management teams. He enjoys helping companies think through the pros, cons, and alternate outcomes of their business and product decisions. Suril encourages founders with an eagerness to improve and a knack for problem-solving to reach out.