Rachel Sachs: Sweater Ventures

In this episode, Joel Palathinkal and Rachel Sachs of Sweater Ventures, explore early investment lessons, career challenges, and childhood influences on mental health. They critique education and discuss Rachel's experiences with Sweater and women's roles in venture capital, as well as Ethereum excitement. The pandemic's influence on retail investing, marketing, and venture capital careers are examined. They discuss transitions from engineering to VC, investment conviction, and scout management. The episode covers fund evolution, product management, consumer and B2B deep tech investments, trend predictions, and media's role in VC, highlighting the importance of community, mentorship, and life satisfaction.

Episode Transcript

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That's why I like that shirt.

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It's like you think of I got stocks in Pelotonbefore the pandemic at like $10.
I sold too early.
That was really stupid.
I think I sold it when it hit like 30.
I was so mad at myself.
Welcome to The Investor, a podcast where I,Joel Palafinkel, your host, dives deep into the

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minds of the world's most influentialinstitutional investors.
In each episode, we sit down with an investorto hear about their journeys and how global
markets are driving capital allocation.
So join us on this journey as we explore theseinsights.
Live, I think we are live now.

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So everybody, you know, really excited abouttoday's guest.
We have an alumni in the house.
So Rachel Sachs, this is I've been seeing thisa few times where we see people coming back
full circle, right?
Like they've came in to the Sutton program, andnow they're like the mentors of the Sutton

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program.
So we had, who was there the other week?
Evan was here,
Oh, cool.
And there's two or three other people that noware coming in as guest speakers.
So I wanna hear, you know, a little bit aboutmore personal aspects of you, your family, your
career, and you know, look we've had some oneon one chats about just the challenges of

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transitioning, number one into the workforce,like if you leave a job, the challenges of
trying to get employed again and just getanother job of the anxiety of that, and you
know look this is real talk.
And then on top of that, trying to break intoventure capital, right.
So why don't we start with you, your family,you know where you grew up, what your parents

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did, and how you navigated to your earlycareer, and then let's talk about Sutton and
then kind of the switch to, I guess you were atan accelerator for some time, and now you're at
like kind of a tech enabled venture fund,right?
Yeah.
So okay, I guess I can launch into it.
I was born in technically Virginia, which is myfun fact.

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I grew up in Maryland, like suburban Marylandoutside of little suburbs of DC.
My father does in vitro, so that kind ofsparked a lot of my interest in like very just
new innovative things and kind of gave me aproclivity for enjoying STEM.
Like I kind of grew up he'd be like, are youdoing anything productive?
Like it's like a Saturday and he'd be like,okay, go online.

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Like my dad was on the internet like in the 90slike, and I would be like a tiny little kid
like on his lap and had like a little do youknow this little like ball thing?
It's like a ball mouse for like babies.
I think so.
Yeah.
I wasn't allowed to play video games, but Icould do that.
It's the strangest thing.
Like, wasn't allowed to play video games, butthat one.
So yeah, think it just, I pretty much would bereading stuff about physics.

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Like that's what he'd make me do.
I'd be like, oh, so I just happened to do withthat.
School was like not great for me.
I had undiagnosed ADHD like and it was brutal,depression, anxiety, the fun of that and
there's a lot of my adult life has kind of beennavigating that especially in the workforce.
People don't talk about it enough.
I think that's something that really peopledon't want to cover it.

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It's still kind of one of the last few like Iguess kind of microaggression, it's not great
to say that, but it is like people will sayreally insensitive things about how you work,
the way that your brain works and that youcan't comply with whatever their format is or
if you want to try something else and I thinkthat's something that really, worked in like
diversity inclusion as well, I think that'ssomething is still not totally there yet.

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Yeah.
And the bigger problems also, but it's alsolike it's still not.
Well the question is too like who do they thinkthey are to be the governing factor of like
what's normal, right?
Like hey, you're not supposed to do this, whois the owner of supposed to, right?
So who is telling you that you're supposed todo things a certain way?
Because I think we all have our own way oflearning and developing ourselves.

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I personally don't believe in homework, thinkit sucks because you're getting, you're taking
time away from your family, and I think thetime that you're studying and doing work, it
should be like during school hours if you're akid, right?
And I feel like the, it's super enriching tokind of be part of fun activities and spending
time with your family, right?

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So I don't know, that's just my belief, butsome other people may say, hey, you're not
supposed to do that, right?
That's not the proper way to do things.
You're supposed to be a good kid and study and,know, do your homework on the weekends and,
know, go to Sunday school, Yeah,
mean, you have school on Sunday, but that wholething, but yeah, I know I feel the same way

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about homework as well.
I think school just teaches you how it doesprepare you for the workforce, I will say that.
Basically, you have to do a lot of bullshit youdon't want to do in order That's to make pretty
much what it is.
Like, don't know, I'm not as impressed likeanymore.
I think I've just met I've seen okay.
So I worked at the Wall Street Journal for thepublisher.
I'm the CEO of Dow Jones for two years.

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And I saw day in and day out people with reallyimpressive resumes, impressive whatever.
And me, I went to art school, was telling themto like back it up, like you don't know
anything, I was like reading their stuff andbeing like this is trash, like you've learned
everything is just all an illusion.
So yeah, I guess I will allude to that.
I went to the new school for college, I went toactually the University of Arizona my first

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year, I also did not graduate high school ontime.
I retook like two courses in a day each onelike and got 100%.
That's like honestly, learning I think is justgonna stay.
Like I just didn't have the distractions of theclassroom and other people, I didn't have the
whole thing of like you must be physically hereeven though it's terrible and then I got

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diagnosed with ADHD when I was 18, so I kind ofspent a lot of my adult life really learning
how to regulate myself and regulate like how todeal with that and like everything there.
So I've studied poetry at the new school.
People are always like, I ended up in thebusiness world and there's like, why?
And I've just here's what really is great aboutit.

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You are taking critiques all day in art school.
People are you have to stand up, you have toread your work, number one.
So it makes presentations much easier andthey're just criticizing you.
And it's never really that like, they'll golike personality assault, they'll have
character assault, they will just go in on youbecause that's kind of just, people are subject

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to doing that.
Sometimes it's constructive and that it's not.
And you sit there and you just have to juststand there, not cry, just take everything in
and really, really comprehend it and be like,okay, this is how this affects my work.
Great, okay.
And then they expect you to really redo it andthen come back the next time and do it again.
But it really did help me with like resilienceand helped me with being able to take criticism

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and it just really just take it to the facemore so than anything else and really take just
and not also learn to kind of not be so marriedto my work in a way like married to the ideas,
married to like the fact of, oh it has to bethis way, what I have produced like I'm leading
a project or doing something, oh the way that Iplanned it out, it's going to evolve, it's
going to change.

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So, came up kind of with the rule of thumb oflike do not exert more than 70 to 80% effort on
one assignment at a time because no matter whatsomeone above you is going to change it.
That's the rule I kind of came up with in theend.
And it really did help me eventually witheverything.
Oh yeah and in college I wrote an essay thatwent viral on the internet.

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I had a bunch of photographers from the NewYork Post following me around and then
ironically ended up working for News Corp.
I saw one of the photographers that got me inthe elevator.
I was like carrying someone's coffee and it wasjust so bizarre to feel like it's the complete
paradigm shift in that way and they just had noidea where I am because you learn in like the
media industry, people are just commoditiesafter a while like you're not really, no one

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really cares that much and I think that is thebenefit also of living in New York for so long.
Think you're self conscious about something,you walk on the street, no one cares, this is
nothing, whatever you think is wrong like itdoesn't matter, no one cares about it.
So yeah, that is a thing when they were notgreat to my family, they were not great to me,
but again, it taught me even more just abouttaking criticism from people and just being

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tough and just learning kind of to do my own PRand brand and kind of when to say yes and when
to say no because there's just a lot of really,I was 20 years old, they wanted, Doctor.
Phil wanted me to be on their show which islike hard no, no hard no, it's like my parents
told them that.
What did he want you to be on the show for?
They wanted to criticize me, like, tear my lifeapart, be, blame my parents for everything

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because I thought doctor Phil works.
Well, tell me about the news.
You there was some news article.
Right?
So, like, tell me I wrote
the piece.
About yeah.
So you wrote something on on, like, somearticle and
then Yeah.
It was just like about
You told me there was some paparazzi orsomething following
you or Yeah, was a deal.
It was
a whole thing.
I wrote an essay on like thought catalog, whichlike that's a No one goes on there anymore,

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sorry, but it's true.
But at the time, like this was like 2013, likethat was still a thing.
Yeah.
I wrote an essay kind of about kind of justowning if you have wealth or not, and kind of
not apologizing it, but also not trying to, Iwent to school with a lot of people who were
very wealthy, pretended they weren't, to getsympathy from people, to just fit in, that kind
of thing, and it just bothered me time and timeand again.

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And I just I didn't think it would getanywhere.
I didn't think it would get anywhere.
I didn't think they would take it.
And then they kind of ran with, they found it.
Oh, I found it.
All this stuff's terrible.
Because like you learn, like, this is thefunniest thing.
No matter what I do, that's still there.
I'm like, I'm gonna be getting married nextyear and I'm like, I don't love my fiance's
last name, mine's definitely better, but I'mlike, do I take it just to go away from it?

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But I don't think it would go away.
Yeah.
I think it's enough in common.
I think that the linkage, they would probably,Google's like search algorithm would probably
still have it.
So it's kind of like Probably.
Was a friend of mine that, well, not really afriend of mine, but somebody that I knew.
It was my somebody that knew my friend and thisperson, like, went berserk on the on the Metro

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North.
It got picked up by, like
Oh, no.
All these comedy and
Oh, no.
And I think she had issues getting a job aftera while, but Yeah.
I'm sure, look, thing like you said, right?
Like, you get really paranoid about it, you'regoing you're you're applying to a new job, you
know, people are gonna be Googling you, butpeople move on, right?

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There's some new thing that happened in thenews.
Yeah.
And, you know, it's just, look, Robinhood hadan IPO.
Right.
Great, there's another IPO this week, and then,you know, all this stuff is going on with Como,
right?
So, that hits the top of the newsfeed and likethis thing, so the news moves and people move
on, right?
And I think a lot of times we get really selfconscious about like what other people think of

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us it kind of can be draining on like ourprogress at some point, right?
And look, all have done things that we regret,and we all we can do is just keep moving,
right?
So
Yeah, I've had to defend myself about it in alot of job interviews still, even for the past
year or so, Like, I've had to discuss itbecause that's what comes up.
It's actually funny.
When I interviewed at WSJ, they didn't look itup.

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I thought they did bad because you Theymentioned something really close to it.
So I brought it up first because I assumed thatthey knew, and then I found out later on from,
like, one of the people interviewed me I workedreally closely with, they're like, yeah, we
never looked it up.
And I'm like, what?
I thought, isn't that your job to be doingthat?
Like, isn't that HR's thing to be doing thatfirst of all before that and then screen?

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Nope.
Did not look it up, but I still talked about itanyways.
I still was like, okay, have to get, I figuredI needed to get ahead of it.
Like, going into that.
Like, what do they ask?
Do they make you explain it?
Do they say, hey, you know, well, notice thatthere was an article here about you, you know,
what, what was that about?
Yeah, exactly.
And it kind of like
Got it.
Spin it more into like it taught me a lot oflike how to deal with people.

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It taught me well, it was great for like thejob when I was at Dow Jones.
It really was good for that.
It's like working closely with the CEO, likebeing on display all the time basically
everyone watching you and every single movethat you make and just being able to handle
that I think partially got me the job I thinkso like really in the end like being able to
handle that level of public criticism as well,like that really does make you just really

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tough.
Yeah, in a sense for the most part, right?
I mean, any press is good press, right?
Look at Robinhood, right?
I mean, Robinhood, when they had so manyproduct issues, we saw them shoot up, like by
$3,000,000,000 over the summer, in thevaluation.
So sometimes, bad press can be a catalyst tokinda make people pay attention to you.

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And it's up to you to kinda be able to channelthat in like the right direction.
And maybe it tees up a conversation saying,look you know that was a learning experience
for me, and this is what I learned, and this ishow I've become a stronger character, and this
is why I maybe would be a good VC, know,because I've been able to kind of, put what I

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feel is out there.
And I feel like a lot of people put out therewhat they think people should accept.
This is what kind of like your brand shouldlook like versus kind of being more authentic
and saying look you know, this is me, this iswho I am, I've made mistakes, I'm a human being
and I'm gonna move on you know.

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Yeah, I kind of hate like the whole concept ofpersonal branding.
I just really don't enjoy it.
I don't like it.
I feel like I should be doing it but I don'tbut it's just I just don't have really have
really the attention span, so kind of don'tcare at this point plus the fact of like it was
already established for me wasn't it?
So I'm kind of like more proving not provingagainst what the universe thinks is my brand

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more so than anything else.
I just kind of it's funny maybe I should thinkmore about that.
I wonder that all the time like I post thingson LinkedIn, I enjoy that it's interesting to
do it just like to create conversations butit's not like as much of a regular occurrence
maybe as it should be but Yeah.
Yeah we had a guy you know earlier thisafternoon he was at he's at Ripple Ventures,

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Matt Cohen.
Yeah.
And one of the things that I take away fromthat conversation is always stay at the top of
the newsfeed.
Hopefully, it's not for, you know, you know,bad stuff, but, you know, having stuff that's
updating people and being at the top of thenewsfeed, because if you're not relevant and
you're not really up to date, you can justeasily fizzle away, and there's other more

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important, you know, relevant things that justpop up to the newsfeed, so.
So I think just kind of like, you're a thoughtleader or if you're in tech or venture, just
trying to at least contribute to the communityand sharing information that forces you to read
it and have mastery of it, but then also justkind of distribute it to the to the community
so that they can get value out of it as well.

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So Yeah.
So you're okay.
So Dow Jones and then tell me what happenedafter that.
Yeah.
Well, I'm gonna talk about Dow Jones stuff.
Actually, Dow Jones kind of is what made merealize that I was interested in Metric Capital
at all.
A lot of my job was doing very intensive peopleresearch.
My job would be to create so Sheryl Sandbergactually has an entire team of people that do
this which is like I learned that which isinteresting.

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You create basically it's like, so they used tocall it a Facebook before Facebook was a thing,
but it's like a briefing document all aboutthese people that the CEO is gonna meet with
complete with like financials, complete withlike talking points.
Like one time my boss said I meet with Ted Cruzand I had to go look up stuff about it and I
learned just like I'm a big fan of putting inthe people research into that and being very,

(15:38):
very into it, but in general just looking atall these people it'd be like a lot of tech
events, lot of other people and I'd be likeOmid also would get a lot of decks from
founders because they'd be trying to like,there was a lot of clingers on and kind of just
wanted that, but I learned by looking at itlike what was a good deck, what was a bad deck
and I finally learned kind of what a venturecapitalist does and I was like holy shit, this

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is what it is, this makes sense.
It always just been like a year or two ahead ofpeople with a lot of everything weirdly, but it
was never good at the time.
It was never like, like you're in high school,you're wearing something that's gonna be cool
in two years, no one cares, no one's like aboutit, no one's gonna be interested but my cat,
like the funniest thing ever, my guidancecounselor in a college meeting about me to my

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parents called me cool and I was like that isthe possible choice you could have made to say
about me, but okay, I'll take the complimentbut just looking at all these things and seeing
all these people I was like okay this isinteresting I want to be here.
So then I kind of just did more work andfigured out okay, well, how do I end up here?

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So I ended up with some political BS going onin the office as it all happens as all big
corporations.
Yeah.
Ended up being put into the diversitydepartment which like I had a good time there
and then I was let go from there because theywanted to just let go of the department.
Sure.
Which was not great.
So after that I kind of just spent time tryingto figure out what to do.

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I applied to like SV Academy to try and be likein tech sales.
I was like, maybe I can get into VC that way.
Just kind of was trying to figure this out,like what to do, supply new jobs.
You always knew you wanted to get an adventureand you were just trying different paths to try
to get closer.
So then I started, I ended up at like some, itwas like a software sales kind of role, was

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horrible, but then I met someone through orthere who was like starting a startup, they
think they're finally actually gettingtraction, I still kind of get involved with,
they're creating their own like crypto token,it's really strange, but instead that I met
someone through there who was who had a bunchof deals, was doing venture, complete nut job,
this guy was a complete nut job, took moneyfrom me all sorts of nonsense, but he had very

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good deals, He had incredibly good deal flow.
Like I kind of was like, okay, I really judgedit on that choice.
And then I was like, then I found this classand then I was like, I took it.
He actually got so mad at me for taking itbecause he was jealous because he didn't have
any training in anything.
I just was going into that and then I ended upleaving that and going to a venture studio,

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which was like very interesting, anotherpathway in there and accelerators are also,
Spencer Studios kind of like it's very similarto an accelerator, but the ideation comes from
within and then the fundraising goes outward.
Yeah.
And was not for me, not my kind of thing, I waslike I wanted more traditional, I wanted deal
flow, I wanted to see decks, I wanted to bedoing that instead.

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So then I ended up at like at Sweater.
So the founder Jesse actually was working withthe venture studio that I was at And then I
kind of just like, I wanted to leave.
So I was like, I was interviewed and I've beenthere ever since, like about April now.
And I've moved over to finally moved over tothe venture side.
And it's been really cool to just to see it.

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So it's a combination of like a direct toconsumer product that's going to be an app and
it's going to have basically is for nonaccredited investors to invest in startups, but
it's really more so like a fund of funds versuslike a reg CF like start engine any of that
kind of thing.
So really more so you're acting as a fund offunds or an LP.

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So that's what's really cool.
So you can invest in emerging managers throughthe platform?
We're gonna try and hopefully.
That's really cool.
There's a lot of plans that we're gonna betrying to do and just thinking it's just so
much fun to think adventure into so manydifferent ways because there's just so the
ecosystem is just so large.
Like I've been the women in VC Slack channeland group.
That's great.
I've been there for like over a year.

(19:38):
I love it.
I was actually we did a panel with them thismorning about just like different methods of
research or people who are analysts andassociates and then like where I'm trying to
figure out like deal tracking like CRMsituations and everything like that, but the
community is amazing like it's just there's sofew like if you think about it, I mean this
class is an outpaced like it's a kind of likeoutnumbers in a way, but that's not the norm.

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Most firms it's like I'm the only femaleanalyst at the company right now, love it.
Don't feel any issues, don't feel like oh it'sit's too much of a boys club or anything, I
actually feel like very it's open and acceptingand that's really great, but very traditional
firms it can be very, it basically a lot oftimes I feel like it's if you don't have
investment banking experience they considerlike you're trash or if you haven't founded a

(20:22):
decently successful startup, it's like no.
So that tends to be a very difficult bar toentry, but that's really for New York.
I feel like other places it's very different,but New York BC is so particular, it's so
small, it's such a narrow kind of situation,but the world of ventures is so large and
there's just so many more different like, sothere's lot of SEC stuff that's going be

(20:44):
shifting and that should be very interesting,like there's a bunch of other very similar
companies that are kind of coming around likeTitan is one, they've had a bunch of things
through that, and then also like just cryptojust exploding more so.
Ethereum is back, I'm very happy, I put a lotinto Ethereum, I'm very happy it came back
today.
Very happy that it came back today that finallylike you had like, it's just so crazy just to

(21:08):
see the volatility of it, but I like thevolatility, I enjoy the risk and I think that's
why in particular VC is just very, veryappealing.
I mean, you do a ton of due diligence beforeyou do anything, but just the fact of like
really being able to pick something so farahead and have it be successful, it's just like
for me, just really hits right, just this feelsvery like everything comes full circle and it's

(21:30):
kind of a lot of things that I've had issueswith or things people have not enjoyed for me
like that's accepted, that's great, that's whatthey want.
Then if you I have like
gonna ask how do you think the pandemic hasimpacted this because I feel like you know the
last year people were just not spending money,right?
They weren't going on crazy vacations, theyweren't

(21:51):
I'm they were.
They weren't balling out, so they were puttingmoney into Robinhood, right?
Yes.
They they had nothing to so they're sitting athome learning how to do short, you know, shorts
and trades and, you know, joining the Redditcrowd, right?
So it's just been kind of amazing seeing howthe level of sophistication of just the retail

(22:12):
investor has evolved.
So that's kind of not surprising me thatventure is kind of unbundling now to get into
opportunities for the retail investor, not onlyto invest in direct deals, AngelList is already
doing, but also being able to write checks intoemerging managers, because if you got a

(22:33):
$5,000,000 fund, you've got a couple handfulsof $25.50 ks checks, and you got a $3,000,000
to $5,000,000 seed fund, right?
Yeah.
And you can go ahead and deploy capital.
There could be programmatic rules where you getto co invest, know, and that triggers once you
do, once you allocate a certain amount orsomething like that.

(22:54):
So I feel like there's a lot of unbundling thatcould happen and programmatic tech that could
really augment venture that isn't there now andseems like Sweater is doing some of that stuff.
Absolutely and it's funny I was reading up, soI do stats and all these kind of things for, so
23% of the people invested in capital marketsare retail investors now.

(23:15):
So you're almost got a quarter of thatexclusively as retail investors like thinking
just of how big that actually is and it reallywas Robinhood that definitely sparked it for
sure.
I mean, I haven't looked at my Robinhoodprofile in a while because it's been depressing
for a while because I've I've kind of movedover a lot for more just regular because it's
the returns the returns on, like, just regularcapital markets are just, like, very they've

(23:37):
been good, but they're kind of subpar once youkind of go in to see what crypto is like or,
you know, venture is like like venture likekind of time and time again like just surpasses
the capital markets is like 50% but it's likeit's like yeah it's like know by 50% basically
is like what that stat is which is nuts.
I think that's just gonna be the future I thinkjust opening it up more and more to more people
I think it's just gonna continue to evolve andstill gonna be a thing and I think Spyder

(24:00):
really is kind of opening the door for that andhonestly I hope there are more competitors.
I'd love to see that.
I learned from you and it's honestly like whenthere's more than blind competitors in space,
that's a good thing that means that that'sgood, mean that's a good deal that mostly means
someone has thought of this idea and there'smore than one person doing it and I think
that's really and then it becomes kind of abattle of who is doing it better.
Yeah, I mean sometimes I mean this is a trendthat I've seen too I mean and this is just the

(24:25):
fact that I've noticed, I mean you could be anamazing company and have such innovative
technology, but there's kind of a companythat's not that great, but their marketing and
their branding and their community is soamazing that they overlook the fact that the
product sucks.
Yep.
And look, I mean, I'm not gonna name anycompanies, but there's been plenty of companies

(24:48):
that have generated outsized returns and theproduct was mediocre, and there was amazing
products out there in market that just didn'tdo it.
I think that's interesting.
And then maybe we can talk a little bit about,so you're with Sutton Capital, got some hands
on experience.
What were some of the things that circled backto you when you were breaking into the venture

(25:11):
role?
Like maybe walk us through any advice that youhave to kind of nail a venture interview?
Because some of your role is, it's probablysome due diligence, it's probably sourcing,
screening.
So you know maybe do you see anything to kindof circle back into kind of the current role?
Of course, yeah.
I mean being in Sutton like being encouraged toreally go and reach out to founders definitely

(25:35):
is a big leg up.
So leading a lot of venture scouts that I'vebeen dealing with a lot lately, they're across
different fields.
They're kind of a lot of them are very unsure.
Even PC people are CEOs of companies, like, andthey're in the startup world.
And sometimes they're just like, I don't knowthat much outside of my, like, specialty.
And like I purposely picked something outsideof my specialty when I was in Sutton, I did
deep tech deals.

(25:56):
Was like, I purposely was like, okay, I wannalearn as much as possible and like as quickly
as possible and really push myself out of mycomfort zone because I enjoy that a lot.
I was like, okay, let me go find things thatway.
Let me go and tap into like more scientifictalk.
Let me go talk into more mathematical talk andlike go in that way.
Being able to plunge into things has definitelybeen incredibly helpful and reaching out and

(26:20):
just honestly just familiarity with doingreally due diligence on everything, being able
to handle a lot of deals, being able just tolook at everything.
I really just, I don't know, can't, this islike kind of more like sophisticated look at
it.
Like I have worked with a bunch of people, beenat other funds, but I don't know like they
sometimes they're like I don't know like kindof a male female environment sometimes they're
just like they don't they underestimate what Iknow just because they're like oh you came from

(26:42):
my adventure studio and I'm like okay well letme tell you what I know and I'll be like well
what about this this thing this this let me gocheck your model, let me go check this thing,
let me go see what the IRR is on this, and theyjust like are like, what?
Mean, I think look
at you, you know, for me looking back, a lot oftimes I see things, you know, just come full

(27:02):
circle.
So I think for me, you know, I was an engineerworked in deep tech, think your husband, your
fiance, sorry, is an engineer, right?
Isn't he in the aviation industry?
Civil engineer.
Civil engineer, right?
So I was working in deep tech and I just neverthought that in the beginning, right, like when
I was starting my career, you know, in like02/2008, it was just not cool to be in tech.

(27:28):
Yeah.
It was like frowned upon and you were onlyconsidered cool.
Were in New York in 02/2008, So it was onlycool if you're working like ninety hour weeks
as a banker.
You told people you're an engineer like, it'snot cool and then everybody got burned out and
then all the bankers got into tech.
Exactly, so
much more money in tech, it's ridiculous.

(27:50):
Also like engineers don't make that much money.
That is like the most shocking thing in theworld to me learning that like really well
trained mechanical engineers, assistants makemore money than them, like I saw like new
assistants at Dow Jones who made twice as muchmoney as they did, I'm like what?
It does, I think it depends too, I have,depends on the location, depends on the
company, so one of my buddies worked at Apple,and I mean, you would just be shocked as far as

(28:14):
like how much they would make.
So I think the company, and I think the type ofengineering, so if you're building like, you
know, semi engineering.
You're building actual things, mechanical, he'sbuilding like, actually doing contracts like
the DoD and like, assistants make more of like,I think that's really more so I think you learn
how to advocate for yourself.
And then that's something that if you don'twant to make waves, you don't want to advocate
for yourself for making more money.

(28:35):
That happens oftentimes.
I think that's always just the most importantthing is to advocate and not do as many things
for free.
Learned that the hard way and then also kind oftraining like to know your worth and to know
your value and to not be afraid of it anymoreand to kind of just go through it no matter if
you're like okay well what's the worst thingthat could They say no.
I think for me like the deep tech and thetechnology, you know kind of flowed back to now

(28:59):
venture focusing on deep tech, so I think thathelped me.
I think for you what observing is just yourboldness to be able to share how you feel.
Surprisingly, or not surprisingly, that's likethe core of venture, right?
Because what happens is you like a deal, andthen everybody else hates it.

(29:20):
And you're either right and you're contrarianand right or you're wrong.
And it's good that you got some other datapoints to validate that you're wrong.
But like there are some people that I don't do,that I don't think always do well in venture
that are really just agreeing with the GPbecause they don't wanna get fired, don't wanna
get in trouble, they don't wanna get judged.

(29:42):
So, I think the ability to thoughtfullydisagree and share how you feel and if you
disagree, like share why, and hopefully there'ssome thoughtful process around that.
And I think that could definitely be a goodtrait to have.
And I think, know, maybe the, you know, thestuff that you, know, spoke your mind about in

(30:03):
the past, maybe that kind of helped you kind ofmold an investment thesis, and then the way
that you tackle looking at companies and reallybelieving a certain way, and having conviction
around because if there's no champion for thedeals, I feel like a lot of times the deals
just kinda fizzle out because there's notreally a lead.

(30:24):
And especially when you're looking at likethousands and thousands of companies, sometimes
a lot of them are great.
Right?
But if you only have a fixed amount of capital,you can only deploy to a certain number of
companies.
So you can't deploy to all
of them.
You gotta figure out which ones are the bestone.
So walk me through, know, kind of how thatmuscle got refined a little bit with Sutton and

(30:45):
now, you know, with the tech enabled company,how you've kind of had to handle just like the
volume of deal flow and then how you kind ofsource and So
yeah, convicted like I use the word convictionall the time when I'm talking about at the team
like that's the word I picked that up fromSutton so much is like conviction.
That's why I see that to the A- It's
It's like a meme, like a VC meme.
It should be, but honestly conviction and Ithink that's what is something that is I guess

(31:08):
word fault for me is that I am very openlyemotional about things and I'm very happy to
kind of like I can pull it back when I need to,but I can really bring it when I absolutely
need to also like I've had like there's someonewho I've been working with who's been leading a
lot of the network and the deals and I've kindof come in and it's like, we've been definitely
clashing a little bit on back and forth onstuff, but that's how these things work.

(31:29):
That's how teams work.
Because I've been very, very much like morecautious about certain things I've been like,
because there's a lot of pressure sometimes tohave a lot of deal flow.
There's a lot of pressure to have a lot ofsponsored deals to go to the partners or to go
to other things.
And I've been saying, I pointed out, probablynot as tactfully, but I was like very direct.
I wasn't saying you, I wasn't saying that, butI was saying we need to make sure that we feel

(31:52):
conviction about these deals before we justsend them out to other partners or anything
because that's gonna make us look bad if youdon't do that.
Like you have to be able to really, really feelit and it's kind of a matter of like, okay,
well are you not gonna get any deals at all?
Like, no, you will.
You have to just kind of just keep going for itand just keep on it.

(32:13):
Yeah, you know it when you see it, You knowthat excitement.
Like, I'm someone I get very, very excitedabout a lot of things, but I know when I look
at a deal and I feel like it's very meh when Ilook at it.
There's one that passed through our network.
It got I decided it was venture qualified.
We decided that it was going to but could work.
But I personally thought, I don't know.

(32:35):
I was like, I'm not I'm not enthused aboutthis.
Sure.
So, Obi, we'll be talking about that partnersmeeting tomorrow being like going up on a bunch
of them.
I think we got like 10 or so this week thatwe're gonna go look at and think about, but
it's like you really gotta feel that convictionabout it.
And I will never be getting emotional about me.
Would definitely be like, I don't feel thatgreat.
I feel like this is interesting.

(32:57):
I feel like it has a use.
I understand that it is what people would useit, but I don't think this is gonna be that
great.
Like there's certain ones you know, like, okay,this might get acquired.
Like there's one that we looked at that, andit's great, like learning really through
something, learning how to really look throughCrunchbase, really learning how to look through
PitchBook, knowing what you're doing with it,and then learning kind of how to have the extra

(33:20):
eye.
Like one of them I was like looking at and youjust kind of learn to trust your gut instincts.
Like I was looking at I'm like, you know whatthis looks like?
It looks a lot like Masterclass.
So then I went to Crunchbase and of course, oneof the major investors was a major investor in
Masterclass.
So that I'm like automatically, I'm like, yousee like, you know, you put those connections
together and it's like, okay, this just went uplike three points in my mind, okay, that makes

(33:45):
sense and then you kind of go into it again.
I think that actually is a lot also like thebriefing document past of kind of dissecting
how companies work and how people work and Iwould have to put business opportunities within
it.
I would have to go to the chief revenue officerin that department and be like, okay, how are
we doing on like newspaper subscriptions?
I would basically have to like sell newspapersubscriptions through the CEO, through CEO

(34:08):
meetings, but you learn kind of how to have areally trained eye to understand what the needs
are of the other party.
So it's great for figuring out which like firmsto work with, if you're going to co invest with
anything, who to co invest with specifically.
Kind of think things holistically, it's likeokay, well we should go talk to the founders
and think who have they pitched so we don'tsuggest a firm that they've already pitched

(34:33):
because that's what's gonna make us lookstupid.
Yeah.
Like these kind of things get used to it.
And then walk me through how the the so there'sscouts on the platform.
Right?
So anybody can be a scout and then youSomewhat.
Train them or
It's somewhat it's we're it's up we're in apilot phase.
I can't really say too too much about it, we'llbe refining it and figuring out we're trying to

(34:53):
figure out really how much we want to open itup and I think probably will further down the
line but it's definitely not a liberty to saythat much about it but there's definitely a
process for it and it's a lot of it's reallyfun to be building that process and a very
expensive deal pipeline.
That's because I mean, you've like taken thisclass, you know, the guts of how a firm works.

(35:16):
So it's kind of is kind of being like anemerging manager in a way, and kind of figuring
out how the fund is going to work.
Yeah,
and that's been incredibly fun like that'salways my dream honestly is to have my own fund
that hopefully I can hit that in maybe five-tenyears but I've learned from like dealing with
different other business situations and I waslike with that business partner, I was not
ready for that level yet.

(35:38):
Absolutely not.
Like, and I was actually speaking today to aCEO of like a medical device company and like
we were talking like, he was saying likeeveryone wants to be a CEO and I'm like, no,
I've learned my lesson and
if you
closely with CEOs, you just learn, no, it's notthat glamorous, it's not that fun.
I was like, the best spot if you really, likepeople think that they want to be a CEO, no,

(36:00):
you want to be a senior vice president at likea big corporate company because you don't do
anything a lot of the time.
Like I saw a lot of people making like 600,000a year, doing lunches at Tripriani, forgetting
to expense them.
Every month you don't do your expenses, thecompany gets charged and then people happen.
That's what people want, they just don't knowwhat they want.

(36:23):
There's a lot of people who are lazy out thereand that's what they really secretly want and
they just don't know it But that involves a lotof ugliness and a lot of hiding secrets or a
lot of cronyism or just not great things.
There's not great things.
And you did some investor relations for alittle while too, right?
You, didn't you do wasn't that like somethingthat you did after

(36:43):
you bought
Wall Street for some time?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's fun.
Investor relations is also fun.
I mean, kind of feel like it could feel alittle laky sometimes.
You're kind of just going back and forth, but Imean, once you got to work for News Corp, it
was kind of like, it's all gray, it's allrelative anyways after a while, but you learn
kind of like how everyone feels abouteverything and you're dealing with like high
net worth individuals all the time.

(37:04):
It's not that difficult, it's not thatdifferent really than like working at a company
like News Corp.
It's not because you're doing
It really is a sales pipeline.
Right?
So it is a Yes.
It is a business development lead cultivationrole.
Right?
You're building, you know, you're you'remanaging the existing pipeline, you're growing
a a new pipeline, then you're following up withseveral touch points after.

(37:28):
Right?
And I guess what's interesting too is how thatevolves.
We had a really good discussion this afternoonwith just how that's evolved from fund one to
fund two, right?
Because your strategy, your LPs are gonna bemore of the high net worth individuals, and
you're focusing on like fund one and fund two,even fund two.

(37:50):
And then I think, you know, two is when you'regetting into more of the bigger family offices
and like possibly maybe some fund to funds andmaybe some institutions, but, you know, your
strategy and your approach is gonna bedifferent.
And then I think it's interesting too with kindof a tech enabled venture fund, some of your, I
mean, LP essentially is kind of like a, itcould be a lead investor, that's investing in

(38:14):
you as a company as well.
So, you guys consider yourselves like a fintechcompany or a fund or just a hybrid of both, I
guess?
Hybrid.
It's definitely hybrid.
Definitely a fintech kind of enabled hybrid andthat's really fun.
It's like, I like, I really make myself closeto the product team too.
So that's been really fun for me to think aboutthese things.
I like to think of, again like working theCEO's office you learn the easiest way to do

(38:37):
your job is just to learn everything abouteverything.
Sure.
Like I did a company wide report every Friday.
Every week I would make sure like pretty muchpeople were very late with it but it gave me a
really good excuse to go track them down.
So I would pick a new department almost everyweek.
I would introduce myself if they didn't know mealready.
And then I would just ask them like about whatwas going on.

(38:58):
So that would make my work a lot easier tounderstand is how the company works as a
complete ecosystem.
So the more that you understand about a companyand every single part of it, even if you're not
in it because we tend to silo ourselves offinto the little like what we know and we want
to do, but thinking about just how other peoplethink or what they're thinking about the
product, it'll just save time for yourself, foreverybody and it kind of honestly saves money

(39:23):
too.
Weird, I feel like it never pays off for mewhen I'm like I do money saving like kind of
things, I figure these solutions out and no onecares, that's fine, whatever, it does end up
making my time easier.
You have to work smarter, have to work moreefficient like I don't really do the same thing
twice exactly the same.
I don't like that's something a lot of peopledon't do and they're kind of uncomfortable with

(39:44):
that but it's like that's my comfort zone iskind of just being really uncomfortable and
constantly figuring out a new way to do thingslike I was trying to figure out, I'm trying to
get the deal screen whole deal like fixed up.
I was like I can't stand the way that theperson who made it did it and decided to do it.
Like this is not as efficient, it's not really,I don't know if this is telling people what
they want to know or anything like that'sreally, that's what I care about I think in

(40:08):
life anyways, it's just kind of efficiency,kind of just getting it done and just kind of
figuring out like you can always improve thingsabout yourself, you can always improve how
you're working and how what you're doing witheverything.
Yeah, working with product, you know, becauseyou know about my product background.
Yeah, I love product.
So, you
would be, so you would almost be, you know,kind of wearing maybe a pseudo product hat, but
you'd also essentially be the stakeholder,right?

(40:30):
You're gonna probably tell them, because that'show product people can build stuff, right?
They focus on the problem, they focus on theuser.
So, you know, I'm assuming they probably askyou like what your workflow is, what your goal
is when you're like go into the portal, right?
Like what are you doing Angie, right?
Yeah.
It was just fun to know it that way and it'sagain, it makes everything like everything is

(40:53):
connected and it's kind of ridiculous thingit's not.
So the more that I know kind of about theproduct that is being built, the more I can
think about how we can make things better inlike three to six months.
Yeah.
I kind of always just think things of thingslike directly ahead and then three to six
months out because it's just, it's more comit's just, I don't know, I'm comfortable with
it.
That's where I thought I got used to after awhile and I think that's something I think

(41:15):
adventure you have to really be comfortablewith is like also the fact of like you're not
seeing, so you ain't going be seeing returnsprobably for another five to seven years, but
that's about totally fine and that's exactlyhow it works.
You're not going to necessarily be seeing itright away.
Think it's, people think that ventures likethis glamorous get rich quick kind of deal.
It's not, it's not.
It's more it's a long term investing.

(41:36):
You're really investing in the founders, you'rereally investing in the vision of everything,
having conviction about it and kind of justbeing like, all right on to the next thing.
Okay, great.
But you're also kind of maintaining thoserelationships and it's great if you have ADHD,
it's phenomenal as a career.
It is, I mean, that's probably feel why ventureworks for me.
I mean, I've changed my career.

(41:57):
This is my third pivot in my career, And Imean, you're probably on your third too, right?
But I was an engineer, I was a product managerand even when I was in product, I changed
industries and I was in FinTech, I was inaviation, I was in media and I think it's
because I mean, ADHD is what some people callit, but maybe other people call it just

(42:17):
curiosity, right?
You want to learn, you have a thirst to kind ofalways learn something new, and if not, you
just get bored, that's just kind of what myissue was.
So I think the answer is great, And I thinkit's very fitting for me being a generalist
investor, because it just kind of keeps mefresh to learn like just new things and new
sectors.
Because if I was only doing FinTech,

(42:39):
I
feel like I would just get bored out of my mindor just kind of lose.
I feel like you just run out of, you know,opportunities.
Right?
I mean, that you think are interesting becausehow many how many more crypto trading apps?
Oh my god.
No.
I know.
I can't.
I can't even I'm like, I go deal sourcesometimes with the women in VC thread and I
just go skip across different areas as long asit's like the right one for us or the right to

(43:03):
see.
It's so fun.
It's just like, it's the most fun thing in theworld to see just like what people are coming
up with.
And I'm like, things that people would dismissas fluffy.
I'm like, bring it.
No.
You gotta think of like, you look at the deckand you're like, okay, this is like CA, do know
Creative Artists Agency has a venture arm now?
Oh, they do?
Okay.
Yeah.
They do.
I saw a deal from them.
It's called like, it has a, I think it's gonnabe with Gwen Paltrow.

(43:26):
I think that's who they're picking because theywere alluding to her, like she was pictured in
the deck and it was a very Goop esque product.
It's like a $200 showerhead that has like thislike spa transformative thing.
People are gonna buy it.
That's the thing.
I think that also was being in touch with kindof more of the darker side of things and life.
That makes like, I'm a great stock pickerbecause of it.

(43:48):
That's why I like Venture.
It's like you think of I got stocks in Pelotonbefore the pandemic at like $10 I sold too
early.
That was really stupid.
I think I sold it when it hit like 30.
Was so mad at myself.
Was like, that's a good one, but I think alsokind of what you learn is like being fine with,
okay, well, I got a good return, fine, move onto the next thing.

(44:13):
That's what it is.
Mean, you're never gonna sell at the perfecttime, right?
There's always gonna be maybe a higher price orjust someone that did better than you, right?
So I think just kinda getting out of that cycleand just having tunnel vision and focusing on
what your goals are, what's gonna make youhappy, I think that's been helpful for me.
I mean, may not be for everybody else, but, andthen are you guys a generalist investor, you

(44:36):
guys look at everything, or is there a certainsector that you prefer to focus on, or maybe
you as an analyst, is a certain sector focusthat you're kind you know, tasked to work on?
It has to be consumer touching, that's what itis.
Need to be able to use it in their daily life.
That's really
kind Got it, so no B2B, so no B2B SaaS.
Oh yeah, B2B counts though, B2B does count.

(44:57):
We are willing to look at B2B, which is what'svery cool about that.
It's like Okay.
I love looking at B2B stuff.
It's super interesting.
Again, like having to deal with like so DowJones' big product was like called PIV.
It's like professional information theprofessional information business.
So that was also part of the times I had tosell that too.
Yeah.
To just in the newspaper.
So I learned a lot about B2B and kind of thatindustry and like what it costs, which is

(45:18):
insane.
Yeah, think I know
what you mean.
I mean B2B, if you think about Bloomberg,there's still customers that work for Bloomberg
that touch it, they're just not consumer retailcustomers, right?
But
I guess that you guys won't touch deep tech,right?
You guys won't do space deals, is what I'massuming, right?
Most people do software.
I'm never gonna say never, never say Never saynever.

(45:41):
Have a six month plan, right?
You so maybe month seven, you know, we'll getinto you guys to do quantum and space and
other No, that's the fun of it.
That's the fun is just like letting everythingbuild and that's the fun of also like when
you're it's a startup mentality to a fund, andthat's what's
And that's what good product managers do too,They build for the user, and they think about

(46:01):
what the customer wants, right?
I mean if the customer starts providing a bunchof feedback saying, hey, you know, so we're you
know, looking at a deal now, it's pretty muchretail investing for space deals.
So you can invest in space companies for aslittle as a $100.
So it's like the Republic And of you know,there's just a bunch of engineers, a bunch of
tech people that love sci fi, it's

(46:24):
a huge
market, you know?
Oh yeah,
capitalize on that Bezos thing, and I was likereally happy, I bought my fiance the same like
Moonwatch, it's like a getting his professionalengineering present, I was like, yeah, the
price of that watch just went up because Bezoswas born on the moon landing, yes.
We're wearing his little space trip, not evennecessarily that one, but I was like, I love
when that happens.
When you just predict a trend really right, andthen it happens to just like, you pay off like

(46:47):
years later and you're like, oh, I'm like,well, that watch just doubled in value even
though it doesn't have the blue origin littlestrap on it.
Yeah.
I thought What is that?
It's a special like
Moon landing edition watch with the skeletonback because he likes, as an engineer, enjoys a
skeleton back.
I got it like from The RealReal, but it wasstill not cheap.
But that was, like, a present.

(47:08):
I was, when we got engaged, I was kind of amixture of that, and I was, that was a fair
thing, like, nice present.
But I was, like, I bought it knowing that itprobably would be valuable, would continue to
be valuable, especially, like, limited edition,skeleton back.
The only one that Omega makes in that versionat all.
So I was, like, once I saw Bezos wearing it,I'm like woo no it's like a $20,000 watch baby
like yes that was a great one.

(47:30):
Love when that kind of thing happens and that'sjust fun of seeing if you're right like the
consumer part and all like I actually startedwhen I was like first like, well, I still do it
actually to like growth marketing, I still dothat too.
So that's very fun and very interesting tothink about from both perspectives of
everything.
It is kind of a pseudo like product like I knowa lot about the consumer, I know a lot about

(47:50):
who's following us, I know a lot about kind ofwho we're going to be appealing to and kind of
how to appeal to them and I think that's justbeen really fun for me as well like product is
just so interesting.
I think in order to understand venture, I thinkit's important to also understand product and
to work with founders.
I think you have to have a very intenseappreciation for the amount of work that goes

(48:12):
into any kind of product and to really be ableto break it down and to understand what they're
looking for and what their consumer is lookingfor, and that's just incredibly fun all the
time, just to be able to do that.
I like to think so, I think product is reallythe core of like how the customer experience
works, right?
And if you, mean, I it's good to kind of getyour hands dirty, you're gonna invest in a

(48:34):
company, might as well test the product out.
Yes.
And see if it's, but you know, and theinteresting insight that I've learned too is,
there's amazing companies where you don'treally like the product, but it's just an
amazing business.
Yep.
Right?
So there could be a really cool, you know,female shoe company, Right.
Even though they don't wear female shoes, itcould just be an amazing business.

(48:56):
Right?
Yeah.
You gotta know.
Sometimes you have to kinda be sensitive aboutthat too, and just step away from like you
being a fan of the product versus is this gonnaget us outsized returns in seven years?
Oh, yeah.
No, you gotta be outside of your head with thatone.
Like, there's tons of stuff I'm like, like thatone that I was like, it's the EA made.
I'm like, I would never buy it, but like I knowa lot of people who would and they would love

(49:18):
it.
Anything Gwyneth Paltrow freaking sells on Goopjust does exceptionally well and there's a lot
of opportunity and that's already the money andthe budget that would be spent on something
like influencer marketing, which that's what mysister does for a living, which I find very
heartbreaking.
Yeah,
look every VC is a pretty much a media company,right, Andrea?
Yeah.
Morwitz is investing.
Future is actually great.
I actually like Future.

(49:38):
People I feel like are very mixed on it.
It's fun.
Definitely fun to read, I'm wondering howthat's structured.
I guess it's gotta be interesting.
Can you imagine, like, people there, like Imean, they must have the biggest HR department.
I swear
to god.
Like, I'm, like, thinking, like, I see I feellike every single person I see on LinkedIn
somehow, I'm like, partner there.
I'm like, how?
How many partners are there at this firm?

(49:59):
Oh yeah, yeah, they have a huge department forlike startup support.
They have like a growth team, they have Somuch.
They have like a product development team.
Mean, they're all partners.
Yeah.
You're right.
I actually know that.
It's insane.
I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, how the hell arethere like 40 partners at this like, no.
I see I probably more.
I'm feeling like maybe two, like 200, somethingridiculous.

(50:20):
And I'm like, what?
So there gotta be someone who's a partner inthe future.
I'm sure they probably nabbed someone from likeNew York Times somewhere.
I'm sure like whoever is technically theeditor.
So future is the
media arm of Andreessen, is that what it Yeah.
Okay, got it.
It's only digital, think it's great.
I think that's a really great thing for theventure community to have.
I feel like it's many people have a lot of,like, other dicks, like, Andrew's in, like, I'm

(50:45):
like, you know what?
Like, it's interesting.
It's interesting to see the guests on it who,like, write guest articles.
We're there.
I'm very curious to see what's gonna come outof it.
Are they gonna try and like make it into abook?
Are they gonna try and like, I think a lot ofVCs probably who wanna get into that space, I
mean, that's probably the spot to be like, yes,everyone's on Medium, everybody's on Medium,

(51:06):
every VC has got so much on Medium.
I should be on Medium, I just have not.
I think I'm just more I'm having a lot ofattention for things.
I'm like, I need to kinda know my know a littlebit more before I'm going out there because I'm
like Yeah.
I mean, that's why I so I I wasn't I didn't,like, decide to study, like, writing until
after that article either.
I was like, alright, you won't pay attention tome for this.

(51:27):
I might as well learn everything.
But I can about it in order to do anything withit.
That's kind
of my What do you think of audio just in
as a
as in as far as just in investment sector?
You don't like
No.
I think it's gonna go.
I think it's just I think certain I've actuallyseen some, like, more deals come across about
because, like, the audio, I'm just like,Clubhouse, mean they're changing their name.

(51:50):
I think that's the funniest thing.
I'm like, that reminds me of like, what likeDaria, like Mystic Spiral, we're changing our,
what we're changing our name.
Like that's, I feel like what that's like,that's kind of like having an identity crisis
there.
So what formats do you think is better?
Mean, look, we, I like to write, I just don't,sometimes I just can't sit down and block out

(52:11):
the time, but I do enjoy writing.
I feel it's more time consuming and I have toreally kinda organize my thoughts to do like,
you know, a blog, right?
A blog post.
But, know, audio is natural for me just becauseI'm just having a conversation.
I can fit in more text in one sitting and Idon't have to edit much, I mean, if I say

(52:32):
something wrong, sorry, you know, but like Ithink, you know, you take video, rip the audio,
distribute that.
I don't think everybody has the time to sitthrough a whole episode.
So maybe bite sized content, I don't know, youknow?
I mean maybe bite sized audio can be veryinteresting to think about if someone wants to
try and make that a thing.

(52:53):
It's gonna keep exploding, I'm sure it will.
I'm just personally I hate it because I'mhorrible at listening to other people, I will
say that, And it's I know myself, best mediumis probably not this exactly, like it's not,
that's okay, but I'm definitely a lot moreeloquent when I can organize my thoughts and
think and put it into writing.
I'm definitely like much more intelligent whenI'm writing it out and I have a chance to be

(53:17):
like, did I really wanna say that?
Okay, but I think audio will continue explode.
I think it's just gonna be a thing.
I've been liking a lot of them.
I was first saw a deal today.
It's like a transcribing services becauseeveryone's on Zoom all the time.
Horrible.
If I'm if you're bad at taking notes.
I mean, Otter is good, but there was anotherone.
Think it's
I feel like that's just a

(53:38):
feature.
Loa,
like that.
Feel like that would just be a feature for Zoomat some point, right?
Wouldn't that be a is it not?
Or
just a plug in that you can sell to Zoom as anupgrade.
I haven't they.
Literally why have they not?
That's what's shocking to me.
I feel like why is Otter not like merged withZoom?
I'm like, I feel like they're the big player orthere's another one, right?
Like Firefly or something or whatever, what'sit called?

(53:58):
It's like something fly is another one.
I've seen a few of them and I always likereally at like it's oftentimes almost
exclusively when I'm meeting with VCs.
Someone's got a record like a little like notetaking app as one of the people and I'm like,
And I always just like to listen and like hearabout it and be like, hey, can you tell me
about this note taking app?
I haven't seen it or like, which one is it?

(54:20):
Because I mean that's what the fun all the timeis like that is the best part of being around
VCs is just constant like shiny new things allthe time and especially like the Women in BC
thing I gotta do.
I truly try to make an effort to go todifferent groups within the whole ecosystem.
Within
Women in BC?
Yeah, Women in BC.
Okay.
It's like 5,000 people now or something.

(54:41):
Wow, that's great.
It's amazing.
No, it's really great.
And that's, I was actually saying to like myanalysts, like a team, was like, so when we
start reaching out more to like partners andother things, I'm like, if we see different, if
you're trying to match like Forbes people, ifit's a woman, it to me because most likely
that's a weird thing, but it's so true.
Like women are very, very supportive of eachother in VC.

(55:03):
I found
that to be in particular, like not in tech,I've not seen that in tech, I've not seen that
in business.
What I've seen out of VC just time and timeagain, and everyone is Have
you reached out to Transact Global?
Transact Global is also another good female VCcommunity I know some of the people there are
so I can definitely Yeah. Connect
Connect They're really great community.
They're awesome.

(55:23):
That sounds awesome.
I love these type of groups like everyone is.
Yeah, absolutely.
Think you need to have more communities, moretribes, more support systems where you can
really feel safe and share ideas and kind ofbounce it off with people, right?
Because we're not all, most times we're wrong,and we need people to help us just make sure
that we are thoughtful in how we make thedecisions, right? I

(55:46):
I mean, you're not always gonna be organizingyour thoughts the right way.
So just kind of getting other people'sinsights, maybe somebody made a mistake
similarly in the past and that thing that theylearned from, you know, it could help you save
a lot of money, right?
From not investing Totally, in that sector,
no, they're always just so great.
I love just hearing everything.

(56:06):
I actually love being proven wrong too.
It's just so, it's fun.
If I hear a compelling argument against me, I'malways very happy with that.
I'm like, honestly, I enjoy kind of when I'm ata meeting, people are like, it's poking holes
in the deal being like, I don't know about thatone.
I don't know about that part of it.
That like, they don't have a real they haven'tthey can't find the revenue.

(56:27):
Like, what is that?
Like, what is this business model?
This is crap.
Like, they didn't put competitive advantage.
Like, what?
Like what is their competitive advantage?
Like what is that?
Like I don't even know what they're gonna dowith that.
So I enjoy when people do that.
Sure.
It is important.
Yeah, no this is great.
Well I know we're out of time if anybody hasany questions just chime in.

(56:48):
So just, you know, yell out your question ifyou if you do have one.
Could be anything.
I don't even care.
I'm happy to take any questions.
People have told me some horrible things onTwitter, so don't even worry about it.
Yeah.
It's all good.
And and while they think about a question ifthey have one, I you know, you know my famous
question at the end, right?
So just think about a mentor that you've hadand any kind of piece of advice that they've

(57:10):
given you.
And if you wanna share that with us, it'd begreat to take that wisdom back.
Great.
This is like when I'm like, oh my gosh, I have
Yeah, some people usually aren't ready for thisquestion.
Yeah, I know.
I should know.
I should have known that.
Oh, do you have a fish What is this one?
Do have a fictional that has influenced you?
I wish Oh, oh, oh my gosh.
No, it's Hedge It's It's a Hedge Fund onethough.

(57:33):
That's what I'm thinking.
What's oh my god.
What is the name of it?
I am blanking on the name.
It had a really cool name.
I am literally visually imagining the cover.
It is white.
It has like a lot of red, like yellow and blueon it and like a weird kind of thing on it.
Mhmm.
I in my on my bookshelf in the basement.

(57:53):
I'm like three floors away because like, yay.
Sure.
Killing me, killing you.
So who's one of your mentors?
Who's somebody that you look up to?
It could be like somebody you haven't met,could be Tony Robbins, I don't My know whoever
you
dad, my dad says, everyone who says they knowwhat they wanna do with their life is full of
shit.
Basically, everyone is still trying to figureit out.
Oh,

(58:13):
yeah.
Like, everyone is faking it.
They're all just being like, I know what I'mdoing.
You don't.
When you're in your forties, fifties, you don'tknow what the next couple years are gonna look
like, and I think it's just being comfortablewith that.
Mhmm.
That's
it.
You're always learning and like, look, at somepoint we may, you know, I mean, you may not be
a VC forever, right?
You may pivot and become an author or dosomething So whatever it is, like, make a good

(58:38):
point, just try to embrace it and just and justtry to be happy and just try to find happiness,
I guess.
And I think that for me is what I've beentrying to do, so.
Yeah, that's the point.
I mean, I'll say this, my life goal in terms ofhappiness is a consistent, like 70% happiness
throughout a day for a year at a time.

(58:59):
That is my ultimate life goal.
How do you measure happiness?
What does happiness mean?
I am excited to wake up in the morning and tobegin my day.
I know I That's
a framework.
Then I'm kind of just go through my whatevermorning routine, whatever it eventually is at
that point, who knows if I have kids, if I havelike whatever.
And I'm excited to go and do whatever it isthat I'm doing throughout the day that is most

(59:21):
likely work because I will probably workforever and I like If
you like what you're doing, you're not working.
I like it.
I like working towards something.
I need something to kind of put my focus to andthen at the end, I know that the day is
probably going to have, if you're working,probably about 30% unpleasantness to it but for
about 70% of it, you're really enjoying what
you're That's good point, yeah.

(59:43):
And then you go home, you're excited to gohome, you have dinner, you're probably with
your family, whatever, whoever, whatever thatlooks like at that point.
Yeah.
And then you go to sleep excited for the nextday to begin.
That is what happiness is to me.
It's I like like 70%.
That is what I've, I am striving for it.
I think I'm somewhere around 50%.

(01:00:04):
Okay.
I'm working on it.
That's, that's really the goal in life is toYeah.
It's like you gotta keep chipping away at it.
Right?
I mean, you're at 50 now, so you're not gonnaget to 70 tomorrow.
Right?
You gotta slowly chip at it.
And I think, you know, you see it gettingcloser and closer.
So.
That
is the Well,
you're out in Philly.
Yeah.

(01:00:24):
Hope either I get to go out to Philly, you comeout to
New Yeah, I'll be back in New York.
I'm always gonna be back.
I'm trying
to some type of alumni event.
Yes.
So we'll get something on the books and thanksfor coming.
Oh, Thank you for having me.
Thanks for coming back full circle and, youknow, now you're a mentor.
Appreciate you dropping knowledge and mentoringeverybody.

(01:00:47):
Yeah.
Bring some good deals guys.
I feel like so it's when, yeah, it's Wednesday.
So I mean, part of meetings Monday, right?
Part of it.
There may be some opportunity, know, obviouslyyou're not allowed to share anything, but there
could be some synergies at some point for VCsand possibly people who want to break into
venture to probably interact with you, right?
At some point.
Yeah, always.

(01:01:07):
I'm always about it, always about it.
Whatever be it, it's such, if you wanna be inthis industry and you wanna be dealing with it,
this is the way to go and always happy to help,always.
Like it's hard to break in once you're in.
It is.
It's great.
You're kind of swimming in choppy waters, butthat's the point.
Yeah.
It's like people who enjoy whitewater rafting.

(01:01:28):
That's what you're doing basically all dayevery day, but that's the point.
To sit on a still lake.
Right?
It is the most boring thing in the world.
I know.
I
know.
You know.
No.
Same.
Honestly, same.
Okay, guys.
Have a good night.
It was so great
to have
you here.