Bela Becerra

Investment Team
New York, NY
[overview]

Bela Becerra focuses on investing at the intersection of consumer and healthcare. She additionally spends time exploring materials science as well as the future of manufacturing.

Bela is active in supporting 8VC Build initiatives, and is a co-founder of Fig.1. Fig.1 was created to democratize access to performance skincare -- incredibly efficacious, clinically-backed products at a price point that doesn't break the bank.

Bela also helps lead the Emerging Builders community to foster the next generation of the most ambitious entrepreneurs and operators. While she's cultivating this network nationwide, Bela largely hones in on the NY ecosystem.

Prior to 8VC, Bela worked with the Curtis Group of Graystone Consulting, an investment consulting division of Morgan Stanley, which delivers objective and practical advice to select institutional and high-net-worth clients.

Bela received a BA in Economics from Stanford University. Bela is originally from Los Angeles, CA.

[Q&A]
Posts
Interview
May 6, 2025

Joe Chen and Jonathan Shen (Upwork) Fireside Chat

We were thrilled to feature Joe and Jonathan from Upwork at March's Chat8VC in San Francisco. We covered their journey from teams like Google Brain and Cruise, and their own startup, to leading AI efforts at Upwork—building Uma, a suite of specialized LLMs powering workflows for freelancers and clients across the platform.

Posts
Interview
May 6, 2025

Joe Chen and Jonathan Shen (Upwork) Fireside Chat

We were thrilled to feature Joe and Jonathan from Upwork at March's Chat8VC in San Francisco. We covered their journey from teams like Google Brain and Cruise, and their own startup, to leading AI efforts at Upwork—building Uma, a suite of specialized LLMs powering workflows for freelancers and clients across the platform.

Posts
Interview
Sep 3, 2024

Ramp & Vercel Fireside Chat

We were thrilled to host June's Chat8VC event alongside our portfolio companies Ramp & Vercel in NY. We were honored to feature Nik Koblov (Head of Engineering) and Nico Bevacqua (Head of UI / UX Engineering) from Ramp as well as Guillermo Rauch (CEO) and Lee Robinson (VP Product) from Vercel for a discussion anchored around the future of frontend engineering.

Posts
Interview
Sep 3, 2024

Ramp & Vercel Fireside Chat

We were thrilled to host June's Chat8VC event alongside our portfolio companies Ramp & Vercel in NY. We were honored to feature Nik Koblov (Head of Engineering) and Nico Bevacqua (Head of UI / UX Engineering) from Ramp as well as Guillermo Rauch (CEO) and Lee Robinson (VP Product) from Vercel for a discussion anchored around the future of frontend engineering.

Posts
Interview
Apr 25, 2024

Karim Atiyeh and Nik Koblov (Ramp) Fireside Chat

Today, we’re pleased to share the transcript from that conversation. Karim and Nik share numerous insights on Ramp’s journey, which recently marked five years and over $1 billion in customer savings. They explain how Ramp has been guided by the same mission since their first prototype, how they’ve achieved and maintained product/market fit, how they’ve built and sustained a dynamic and collaborative talent culture, and where AI has (and hasn’t) factored into their product evolution.

Posts
Interview
Apr 25, 2024

Karim Atiyeh and Nik Koblov (Ramp) Fireside Chat

Today, we’re pleased to share the transcript from that conversation. Karim and Nik share numerous insights on Ramp’s journey, which recently marked five years and over $1 billion in customer savings. They explain how Ramp has been guided by the same mission since their first prototype, how they’ve achieved and maintained product/market fit, how they’ve built and sustained a dynamic and collaborative talent culture, and where AI has (and hasn’t) factored into their product evolution.

Posts
Interview
Feb 7, 2024

Nik Spirin (NVIDIA) Fireside Chat

For our final Chat8VC of 2023, we hosted Dr. Nik Spirin, Director of Generative AI and LLMOps at NVIDIA. He sits at a very compelling vantage point in this role. Prior to NVIDIA, he was a serial entrepreneur, classical ML PhD, and researcher by training who worked on many interesting applied AI projects at places like Gigster and played key roles in the enterprise-wide AI transformations of Canon, Dentsu, and Vodafone.

Posts
Interview
Feb 7, 2024

Nik Spirin (NVIDIA) Fireside Chat

For our final Chat8VC of 2023, we hosted Dr. Nik Spirin, Director of Generative AI and LLMOps at NVIDIA. He sits at a very compelling vantage point in this role. Prior to NVIDIA, he was a serial entrepreneur, classical ML PhD, and researcher by training who worked on many interesting applied AI projects at places like Gigster and played key roles in the enterprise-wide AI transformations of Canon, Dentsu, and Vodafone.

Posts
Interview
Nov 28, 2023

Michel Tricot (Airbyte) Fireside Chat

Our story is certainly full of ups and downs. Airbyte today is often associated with our open source data infrastructure project and product. It really started though in July 2019 when my co-founder and I first decided to build something together. We implemented a fairly disciplined system around idea exploration and honed in on the problem-space of data and went through YC in January ‘20, which was the famous COVID batch where we went from being in person to fully remote. 

Posts
Interview
Nov 28, 2023

Michel Tricot (Airbyte) Fireside Chat

Our story is certainly full of ups and downs. Airbyte today is often associated with our open source data infrastructure project and product. It really started though in July 2019 when my co-founder and I first decided to build something together. We implemented a fairly disciplined system around idea exploration and honed in on the problem-space of data and went through YC in January ‘20, which was the famous COVID batch where we went from being in person to fully remote. 

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