Managing Partner

Vaibhav (“V”) Nalwaya is a co-founder and Managing Partner at Wavecrest Growth Partners. Vaibhav’s prior experience spans across both investing and operating roles in the B2B technology ecosystem.

Vaibhav was an investor at Vista Equity Partners’ Foundation Fund, where he focused on growth buyouts in B2B tech. Prior to Vista, he was a Principal at Key Venture Partners, a B2B tech-focused expansion stage capital firm backed by KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY).  During his time at Vista and Key, he invested in a variety of high-growth B2B software, telecom and business services companies across multiple industry verticals.

As an operator, Vaibhav served as Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer of Bluewolf, a founder-led, PE-backed high-growth B2B tech firm focused on the Salesforce.com ecosystem where he played an instrumental role in the company’s highly successful acquisition by IBM in early 2016. Vaibhav has also served as the Chief Financial Officer of Bullhorn, a founder-led, high-growth cloud CRM software company that was backed by Vista Equity Partners and was ultimately acquired by Insight Partners.

He started his business career at Deloitte, where he advised multinational clients on software/ERP strategies.

Vaibhav graduated with an M.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi.

Who is your favorite music artist/band:

Without a doubt, Pink Floyd, which used to play in multiple rooms in my college dorm on continuous loops. Pretty much anything in the classic rock genre, really. It’s surprising because classic rock was a later influence in my life – thankfully my musical tastes were not too affected by the first live concert I ever attended – Samantha Fox.

If you could spend a month in any city, where would you go:

London. My family and I enjoy everything that London has to offer – the food, the culture, the sights, and easy access to the spectacular countryside in the Cotswolds (west) and the Lakes Region (northwest), bordering Scotland. The old, tired trope about English food being bad? It’s an old, tired trope – London has some of the best food the world has to offer.

The best piece of advice I’ve ever been given is:

Asking for help doesn’t mean you are giving up – it means you refuse to give up.