Latest / Trailblazers by Erica Wenger / Why Silicon Valley Is Bad for Early Stage Investors l Trailblazers Podcast Episode 56

Transcript

Why Silicon Valley Is Bad for Early Stage Investors l Trailblazers Podcast Episode 56 · Trailblazers by Erica Wenger

0:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Stay on the show.
0:00
[SPEAKER_00]: I am so excited to be joined by Nicole Wishoff.
0:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Nicole is the founder and solo general partner of Wishoff Ventures, a pre-seed and seed fund with a deliberately contouring focus.
0:10
[SPEAKER_00]: The unsexy industry that make up a huge share of the economy, but rarely get the spotlight.
0:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Freight, logistics, construction, industrial automation,
0:18
[SPEAKER_00]: and B2B Financial Infrastructure.
0:19
[SPEAKER_00]: While much of venture chases the same fashionable categories, Nicole writes early checks into the businesses actually running the physical world.
0:25
[SPEAKER_00]: She comes at investing as an operator first, before raising her own fund, Nicole worked in the trenches at FinTech companies like Blend, One and Built.
0:33
[SPEAKER_00]: hands-on experience and regulated, complex markets that shape how she evaluates founders today.
0:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And she's built one of the more distinctive brands adventure along the way, treating daily posting and radical build-in public transparency about everything from her deals to have she constructed her fund as core infrastructure about it in a side project.
0:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Her own story is a big part of why she bets on unglamorous risk.
0:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Nicole grew up on food stamps in rural Arkansas, and raised her first fund with no traditional track records, relying on sheer conviction to win over her earliest backwards.
1:00
[SPEAKER_00]: The same quality she now looks for and the fact that she finds.
1:03
[SPEAKER_00]: That's welcome to Cole.
1:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much for having me.
1:07
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm so excited.
1:09
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm excited to chat.
1:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so I'm gonna start with an icebreaker.
1:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I'm gonna get right into it.
1:15
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot to pull from when I look back at your bio, but what has been a time in your life that almost broke you?
1:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And it could be personal or professional.
1:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, yes, I, I think it was actually pretty recent.
1:29
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you feel like periods of your life.
1:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, I. Oh, what was it?
1:33
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think I had already raised was I raising a fund.
1:36
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like I'm always in the little of like you're always fundraising.
1:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, but I was pregnant with my daughter.
1:40
[SPEAKER_01]: So I got pregnant with her in May of 2025 and then had her in January.
1:46
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's right.
1:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, of this year.
1:49
[SPEAKER_01]: And I am someone who like every single day wakes up and has like let's do this thing and like just I don't even need coffee, I drink a lot of it but I'm like I cannot wait till I live today.
2:01
[SPEAKER_01]: And I had something called, I didn't even heard of it called Paranatls depression, which just means that you're really, really depressed.
2:09
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of them go through it, I think postpartum, thankfully I haven't had that.
2:12
[SPEAKER_01]: But I did not want to physically move.
2:14
[SPEAKER_01]: I moved my whole family to San Francisco and it opened up an office for the firm.
2:18
[SPEAKER_01]: and I was like, everybody's in, my parents came to take care of my kids, like my husband, and then I get them all there, and they're all taking this rest for me, and like, I'm like, deeply depressed.
2:26
[SPEAKER_01]: So everyone's like, wait, what's going on?
2:27
[SPEAKER_01]: We just do this huge move for you, like, what is happening?
2:30
[SPEAKER_01]: And, like, I didn't even recognize it.
2:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and then, like, thankfully, O.B.s were like, hey, they all have, like, behavioral clinics, is obviously a more personal answer.
2:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, but I was like, running the firm, and I have Neil on my team, and I have all these people that count on me, and I was like, I can not get up.
2:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Like it makes me so sad thinking about it.
2:45
[SPEAKER_01]: So, in such an amazing place now, I think it took a few months, she's like eight months, and I'm so back.
2:51
[SPEAKER_01]: But it was such an interesting period of time where I've really never had mental health issues.
2:56
[SPEAKER_01]: I've never been like, I didn't honestly like, I like being the CEO.
3:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I like being entrepreneur.
3:02
[SPEAKER_01]: I like having it for everybody.
3:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Personally, I'm like, I've got it.
3:06
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just always the person that's like booking the dinners and doing the things.
3:09
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was on my knees like I was like I can't like where is this person and then I was like is it my life like is it just my life that I have to fix and then like I remember calling my would be after suffering for four or five months and she's like sweetie this is like you just take medicine like this is not you like this is like very common we're gonna get you want to medicine and we're gonna be better and then I felt I'm in school over that but I that is the hardest thing I think have ever been through which was like how do you get up and keep doing the things
3:37
[SPEAKER_01]: and run your company, so moms are amazing also because it's, that's like real stuff, you know, I think I like a quid.
3:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what to quid it to, but I think that was this past year was really hard, and then now it's like it never happened.
3:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I'm like, let's go, you know, every day again and we're back, but it was really tough.
3:54
[SPEAKER_00]: But those are the moments that make you much stronger.
3:56
[SPEAKER_00]: And thank God you had the support from family and friends.
4:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Medicine, and that is so much of it, is that you could go to people and that they could also call you out.
4:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I think when you're stuck in those spirals too, it's hard to know what right from left and how to get out of it when it feels so debilitating.
4:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh yeah, my husband one day was like, and I love him so much.
4:14
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not a negative, but he was like, I'm gonna need a little bit of like, like, like, Nicole added to.
4:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, we got, you know, I think he thought with enough cheerleading.
4:21
[SPEAKER_01]: We could do this some one day.
4:22
[SPEAKER_01]: He was like, like, it's not in there.
4:24
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, it's really not in there.
4:25
[SPEAKER_01]: And so he's like, why don't we just call your doctor really encouraging?
4:27
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's type one diet bed X.
4:29
[SPEAKER_01]: We used to take insulin as whole life.
4:30
[SPEAKER_01]: He's like, I would die without it.
4:32
[SPEAKER_01]: So he was really encouraging.
4:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I also don't even take ad-bill before this.
4:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I was like, I've got it.
4:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Like,
4:37
[SPEAKER_01]: My green I can do it you know like brute force like no medicine and so him being really encouraging was like He's like I'll take it with you.
4:44
[SPEAKER_01]: He literally took an S.S. alright with me and was like I didn't die you didn't die I feel great you know like so it was awesome.
4:50
[SPEAKER_00]: I love that support of partners the best is there a fear around like what the medicine's gonna do when I say that because I have
4:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Like a couple people in my life who really don't like taking anything because they don't want to change their chemistry.
4:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Like they love who they are and they don't want to mess with it.
5:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Where does that come from?
5:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Or is it just like you're so gritty and you want to prove you can do it?
5:05
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like I am broken and then the reason I am broken is because I'm not mentally tough or I didn't do all the things I needed to do to make it better.
5:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Like was I journaling to take it enough exercise and my sleeping well, should I drink less wine?
5:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I just think that it is something that I created and therefore it's something I have to fix.
5:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And that was like this like huge mountain I couldn't get over.
5:24
[SPEAKER_00]: that's such a burden for you to carry.
5:26
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why I was like, why would the doctors just going to be like, it's you, like figure it out, your body's different, your pregnant.
5:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And she did not say that by the way.
5:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, if she was so loving, it was like, honey, this is so common.
5:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I didn't know this, but obese now, they just start taking this seriously, is apparently the number one reason pregnant woman die is because they overdose on pills.
5:44
[SPEAKER_01]: They kill themselves.
5:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I did not know this.
5:45
[SPEAKER_01]: And a lot of it is correlated with what I had.
5:47
[SPEAKER_01]: And so she was just like, this is a no-brainer.
5:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, you know, take the medicine, but they also have a behavioral hotline where I can call 24-7 and I had two few times, which was just like literally just talk to me.
5:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Just like talk, like I'm not like just walk me out of bed or is that bad.
6:01
[SPEAKER_01]: And then, but they, she was like, it's completely normal.
6:04
[SPEAKER_01]: This is like what we do.
6:05
[SPEAKER_01]: It just makes me sad because it's like, it's such a dark place that like, and I'm so sad that people go through that.
6:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Men are women.
6:11
[SPEAKER_01]: I think mental health is really real, but
6:13
[SPEAKER_00]: But I mean when that took me down I hear you and I really appreciate you sharing and I honestly you wouldn't you'd be surprised how many GPs come on here And when I ask them this question, it's why I start with it.
6:23
[SPEAKER_00]: They have a health episode and a lot of it a lot of it is mental health Some of it is physical health and a lot of ways they're one of the same actually it's your body, but
6:33
[SPEAKER_00]: these people that are so ambitious and ignore their health to get to where they're going.
6:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think of you as actually the ultimate example of that.
6:41
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, your story, like, I know you want a personal way too, but even when people just hear your bio, like, you've come from, you know, such humble beginnings and you're so gritty and you're like, I will give my all of this.
6:53
[SPEAKER_00]: And there is a point where you are human, you know, and you will break.
6:56
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is a story I hear with so many people that are insanely successful.
7:02
[SPEAKER_00]: they are a human and they have to take care of themselves and they are all they have.
7:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I think it's like, um, it's just a lack of control.
7:09
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like if you had asked me before this happened to me like two years ago, if I was here, I'd probably talk about some career stuff or like personal relationships stuff like a bad breakup or because it's I think it's it hits harder because it's out of your control and there is no playbook, like with funders you for adventure fund.
7:25
[SPEAKER_01]: I know I will get kicked in the teeth and I know that I will get rejected by like 75.80% each fund.
7:30
[SPEAKER_01]: I usually convert the 20% which apparently is good.
7:33
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought it was terrible because 80% of nose is a lot of no.
7:37
[SPEAKER_01]: But like I knew it's just the numbers game and like we're good and like we're gonna get it done and it's gonna be the right fit for someone.
7:42
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think it's like you build this muscle.
7:45
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm literally reading a book right now and I want to take rejection because I hate if it's like don't dig it personally.
7:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, but I think it's like, okay, there's a playbook for this.
7:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Just get your abs in.
7:53
[SPEAKER_01]: But when it comes to your healthy can't control it.
7:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you, whatever the lead-up was, it's already in the past.
7:57
[SPEAKER_01]: And so then it's like, wait, I just, I can't, if I squeeze it, like, it's not going to solve the problem.
8:03
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think that's probably why it hits so hard because there's nothing you can do about it at the time, you know?
8:07
[SPEAKER_00]: 100% I was just chatting with someone who on this recording before, who's sibling was diagnosed with cancer, and it's like, we don't really know where a lot of cancer comes from.
8:17
[SPEAKER_00]: It's your sibling.
8:18
[SPEAKER_00]: So you can't really do anything but support them.
8:20
[SPEAKER_00]: And this happens a lot like it's we don't understand a lot of things that happen in our health and in our body and to your point like there isn't a playbook there isn't a way to understand it so easily and.
8:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank God Medicine was able to help.
8:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
8:33
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, it's something that it brings us all to our knees.
8:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I really appreciate you sharing.
8:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And it sounds like life is in a much better spot these days.
8:42
[SPEAKER_00]: So one thing I've learned talking to GPs on the show, and in my own experience as a GP, is that your back office is a signal.
8:48
[SPEAKER_00]: How fast you close deals, how clean the LP experiences, how your K1s land, investors notice all of it.
8:53
[SPEAKER_00]: The more buttoned up you are, the more likely they are to give you more money in the future.
8:57
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why I want to talk about SideCar.
8:59
[SPEAKER_00]: SideCar is the SPV platform built for fun managers who want institutional quality execution without hiring a full back office team.
9:07
[SPEAKER_00]: They'll review your deal with an hours, handle full secondary transaction support, and give you transparent, pricing, upfront, no platform carry.
9:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, your LP Relationship State Private, which is super important, this is not a marketplace.
9:20
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're running a professional fund, your infrastructure should look like it.
9:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Sidecar makes that possible without the overhead.
9:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Check them out at sidecar.io-partners-traublazers.
9:30
[SPEAKER_00]: that's s-y-d-e-c-a-r dot-i-o slash partners slash trailblazers.
9:36
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to talk about something that you've shared a little bit, which is, you know, you're very, very global in nature.
9:41
[SPEAKER_00]: You're always flying all over your, especially, fun, over America, but you've put roots down more back in Nashville.
9:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Tell me a little bit more about that move.
9:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Was that connected to just wanting to like get connected to who you are?
9:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that?
9:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Wanting a place to separate all the craziness.
9:58
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, I think clear to like talk to me about the Nashville piece.
10:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so August it was like August 24th.
10:03
[SPEAKER_01]: I won't forget it.
10:03
[SPEAKER_01]: We I like we sold our house in Nashville.
10:06
[SPEAKER_01]: We basically got rid of everything Which honestly felt pretty good because you don't realize how much stuff you accumulate and I was like I really really thought that what would take the fun to the next level like this is my baby And it's all I'd it's all I do.
10:17
[SPEAKER_01]: I think about and then the content around it is so much fun.
10:19
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like a hobby, but it's like all I do
10:22
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I was like, you know what, like, AI this AI that SF, like you read all the stats of like all the funding in the world is going to like the epicenter of like San Francisco and there's all these labs and, you know, neo clouds and so like we should just be there.
10:34
[SPEAKER_01]: And I really wanted an office with my name, like I was like, I like this is like important to me.
10:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and so we move out there.
10:40
[SPEAKER_01]: I get, you know, Department for me, my husband and my kids, which was like coming from very cheap, amazing real estate and national was like very humbling.
10:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Like people were so funny.
10:48
[SPEAKER_01]: He's on Twitter.
10:49
[SPEAKER_01]: They were like calling me tone deaf about something very random.
10:51
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, you guys, the department I'm living in, it's just go like, doesn't even have a shower head.
10:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, there's two random like shower rooms, but they're old jacuzzi's with the ones who we like taped ones to the wall, and there's like no shower curtain.
11:02
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, it was literally awful.
11:04
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, this is the pricey pay to be an asset.
11:07
[SPEAKER_01]: My parents had on the street.
11:08
[SPEAKER_01]: They've never lived in a city, and then I get the office, which I love.
11:11
[SPEAKER_01]: I still have it.
11:12
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna go back often.
11:13
[SPEAKER_01]: So like, I'll be back every three or four weeks for a week.
11:15
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's essentially like, I'm still there.
11:17
[SPEAKER_01]: I think for my family, I think an important lesson I've learned is that it's really important.
11:21
[SPEAKER_01]: These for me to have like almost two personalities, or like just the separation of church and state.
11:25
[SPEAKER_01]: When you're an SF and in the mix and like living in the city, everything you do is one dimensional and I love it when I'm there But when you're there all time all the time that is like your thing It's like worksiners with these encounters and operators like every single weekend from two weeks best part I was getting coffees with founders in person like do I think it makes me a better investor?
11:45
[SPEAKER_01]: maybe, but I was so sucked in and I think distracted by like every event, everything.
11:50
[SPEAKER_01]: And so what I took for granted is when I'm in Nashville there's nothing going on there and I don't want anything to be going on there personally so that I can like have my weekends with my family and there's no question or distraction of like let's go do something and then feel like I live like a totally normal life and then get on a plane like I am right now and New York.
12:07
[SPEAKER_01]: And just send it like I have like a million meetings.
12:09
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm hosting less amazing dinner tomorrow night I'm just like with people I love and it's all work So like I just needed that so now we're back in Nashville my family is much happier It is like a much better quality of life for us But I get to go be like killing a coal on the road and like separate that side of myself because all of it together was like very like hard for me Totally I think that's actually a lot of the argument why some people live in New York City as opposed to SF
12:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I think it's in a slightly different way, but I feel like I get to have a little bit of a life outside of tech like one of my best friends works in philanthropy.
12:40
[SPEAKER_00]: The other ones trying to be a Broadway actress like you have this dimension.
12:43
[SPEAKER_01]: I have no cool.
12:44
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I like I love everyone at SFO.
12:45
[SPEAKER_01]: We all do this.
12:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Everyone else is the same thing.
12:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Same.
12:48
[SPEAKER_00]: And like whenever I go out there, it is all the same.
12:50
[SPEAKER_00]: There's something to be said for that being really valuable for a point of time, but it's maybe not so sustainable long-term or maybe not for everyone.
12:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, in your 20s, I met my husband there.
12:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, if you have, I think I even talk about this, like, on my own channels, like, if you are in your 20s and you are out of college and you want to win, you need to go surround yourself by the smartest people in the world who elevate you, go be as social as you can be.
13:12
[SPEAKER_01]: The good news is you can retreat as an introvert on the weekends because there's no plans, but like,
13:16
[SPEAKER_01]: I would just find any apartment.
13:18
[SPEAKER_01]: I met girls on Skype when I moved out there.
13:20
[SPEAKER_01]: I was in a five bedroom sharing one bathroom.
13:22
[SPEAKER_01]: I would wake up in the morning and have to be so bad.
13:23
[SPEAKER_01]: I would be waiting for whoever to get done in the shower.
13:25
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, this is to hell.
13:27
[SPEAKER_01]: But I met the most amazing people.
13:28
[SPEAKER_01]: I met my husband.
13:29
[SPEAKER_01]: I got into tech as I moved out there.
13:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, if you have no family or anybody to like, you know, like, that's latched onto you.
13:35
[SPEAKER_01]: And like, nothing to lose.
13:36
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, there's never anything to lose.
13:37
[SPEAKER_01]: But like, good, just go to the Bay Area.
13:39
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think there's a chapter for that in your life, for sure.
13:41
[SPEAKER_00]: 100% I completely agree with you.
13:42
[SPEAKER_00]: But I love that you've recognized what works for you today.
13:45
[SPEAKER_00]: And the beauty of being your own boss is like, you can make your own rules.
13:49
[SPEAKER_00]: And you can teach it up.
13:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Now you're not old, you're not old.
13:53
[SPEAKER_00]: So I want to talk about the fund.
13:55
[SPEAKER_00]: You've done some incredible investments.
13:57
[SPEAKER_00]: You're scaling it like crazy.
13:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Talk to you about where you guys are at today.
14:00
[SPEAKER_00]: What are you investing in?
14:01
[SPEAKER_00]: And what are you excited about?
14:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Feel everyone in.
14:03
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's talk about the part of building an audience that nobody teaches you how you actually get paid.
14:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone waits until they have enough subscribers, but on be high that you can start earning from day one.
14:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Even with just a handful of subscribers, the ad network is already working for you, plugging you into a network of sponsors that fit your content.
14:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Then, once your foundations are set and you've built something people genuinely value, that's when you layer in a paid tier, giving your audience exclusive access to that extra value and using boosts to grow it.
14:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And here's what creators love most.
14:32
[SPEAKER_00]: When you earn on behalf, you keep it.
14:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Zero percent taken from subscriptions and zero percent taken from digital products.
14:39
[SPEAKER_00]: So whether you're just starting out or ready to add that next layer, go to b-hive.com that's BEH-I-I-V.com and use code Trailblazers 30 for 30% off your first three months.
14:50
[SPEAKER_00]: That's BEHive BEH-I-I-V.com code Trailblazers 30.
14:55
[SPEAKER_00]: So I have a confession.
14:57
[SPEAKER_00]: I used to be a compulsive note taker.
14:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Every meeting, I'd be half listening and half scribbling, and still leaving with gaps on next steps, details that were shared and more.
15:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Grinola completely changed that for me.
15:09
[SPEAKER_00]: It's an AI-powered note pad for meetings, and it's connected to every call on my calendar.
15:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Before each one, it shows me a well-researched brief, so I know who I'm meeting with, when we last talked and the full context going in.
15:20
[SPEAKER_00]: During the call, I jot down whatever notes stand out, a key word, a decision, a quick thought, and then granola handles the rest.
15:27
[SPEAKER_00]: It literally fills in and transcribes the background and turns my rough notes into clean, structure takeaways, the second we hang up.
15:34
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no bots joining calls, it just works in the background.
15:37
[SPEAKER_00]: I use granola for several things.
15:38
[SPEAKER_00]: If I finish a meeting with the potential investor in my fund, I'll ask granola what I could have done better to get my point across.
15:44
[SPEAKER_00]: If I'm meeting with a founder I like, I'll ask granola to point out any major green flags or red flags I may not have already caught.
15:50
[SPEAKER_00]: For people with a lot of meetings and decisions that require endless context, Granola is a game changer.
15:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Actually, we're running Granola on today's episode.
15:58
[SPEAKER_00]: You can read the full show notes at Granola.ai-slash trailblazers and you can see it linked below here.
16:03
[SPEAKER_00]: New users get three months completely free.
16:05
[SPEAKER_00]: That's Granola.ai-slash trailblazers.
16:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
16:08
[SPEAKER_01]: So we are, it's funny when you're doing the intro.
16:10
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, oh gosh, like I'm actively working in the all my team on like fixing this, but when we started, we were ultimately investing in areas I've operated in.
16:17
[SPEAKER_01]: So like deep financial services, FinTech, both consumer and B2P, and then that was in construction tech and love industrial, so it was like wait, these are massive.
16:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Like it's like 30% of global GDP, and this category is, and it was like the tagline was like on sexy and like bringing the physical world online.
16:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And now I feel like we've, like, you know, AI being honestly, is like, in an exciting way terrifying, in terms of like, what it will own and take over, and I'm sure we could talk about that for hours.
16:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, I almost want to help bring this into a world like offline.
16:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I want, like, on the consumer side, I'm like, how do we become more social?
16:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, we do very little consumer, but I do love it, but it's like, how do we actually increase community?
16:52
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like bringing people together.
16:54
[SPEAKER_01]: So, we are still investing in those categories.
16:57
[SPEAKER_01]: I'd say it's more broad, though we're still in the North America, we're leading preceding seed now, so we were not when I started.
17:03
[SPEAKER_01]: So, our first one was 5 million that I raised, and I was still operating in 2021.
17:07
[SPEAKER_01]: I raised 20 million in 2022, and then we raised 50 million in 2024, and we're still deploying from the $50 million fund.
17:16
[SPEAKER_01]: things are going very well.
17:18
[SPEAKER_01]: We actually just probably had our biggest quarter ever.
17:21
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the docs will all get signed in the next two weeks for it ends in terms of markets, but I'm like petrified and for our fun three.
17:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Where I'm like, it's like a few sort of TEDx, it's from our entry price, like the from seed, like just to aid, that's not normal.
17:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Like so I'm like these things, I'm almost scared of like the success of the fun.
17:37
[SPEAKER_01]: It's early, it's just on paper,
17:40
[SPEAKER_01]: The things are going well, I think there's massive opportunity, especially in industrial for AI.
17:44
[SPEAKER_01]: So again, how do we cut one-and-a-half a two-and-a-half million dollar checks and do like amazing founders?
17:49
[SPEAKER_01]: And then what I will say back to SF is it's really hard to be contrarian because we would meet founders first, we're still the first term sheet, but guess what, and you're an SF?
17:57
[SPEAKER_01]: They're going to fly in for two weeks, which is smart, founders, by the way, like, I hate it, as a investor, but it's smart.
18:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Get on a plane.
18:03
[SPEAKER_01]: stay there, stay in a cheap little hotel somewhere, and then basically don't like one way take it, and then take as many meetings as you can and try to hard launch yourself into any dinners or any happy hours with other tech companies, and you will get 900 VC intros, and then all of a sudden you'll have like 14 term sheets.
18:19
[SPEAKER_01]: My strategy of like being the first term sheet like being the total dog like that will take the risk and all of that with founders like and kind of felt like being offline and doing that from Nashville.
18:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Had it was seemed like a way it was a way better strategy being an SF it sort of does nothing but work against you because you are like a signal you were there.
18:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you telling the colonist today or if they mention our name and then it's like everybody gave them a term sheet.
18:42
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, are we just like a signal now, which I am not to add.
18:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's just the market.
18:45
[SPEAKER_01]: I do not think that's us, but I was like, it used to be the case.
18:47
[SPEAKER_01]: You're the only term sheet.
18:48
[SPEAKER_01]: They never got another one.
18:50
[SPEAKER_01]: And then now it's like, if I moved to SF, we give a term sheet in everyone's house one.
18:53
[SPEAKER_01]: So deploying from 50 million, and then, and so far, things are good to try and just slow down.
18:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Because it's moving fast.
19:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
19:01
[SPEAKER_00]: And also, you know, so what you've had is on paper.
19:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's always the worry with our industry.
19:05
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, what's going to become real?
19:06
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the, that's the TVD.
19:08
[SPEAKER_00]: How are we going sourcing differently now?
19:09
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I hear you on this SF point.
19:10
[SPEAKER_00]: I think everyone struggles with this.
19:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Or like, even if you do find a founder first, like,
19:14
[SPEAKER_00]: the valuations are just so high.
19:15
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just a whole other conversation of how insane that is.
19:19
[SPEAKER_00]: How do you think about sourcing differently now?
19:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Now that you've been in it for all these years, like are there any tips, tricks, things that you won't negotiate on, things that you're really excited about that you can share with folks?
19:28
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it cracks me out because I think there's so many funds now and like I think that what LPs want to hear and I like and like I think what LPs want to hear I find to be mostly complete BS and then I think in terms of like actually trying to execute on this strategy which is like hey I might have this like niche Intel on this niche market I'm only focused on like this spreadsheet of like you know 100 or 200 people like this is the thing that I do I do think this works really well for some people.
19:53
[SPEAKER_01]: I think there's some funds that have like a grand strategy that are multi-stage
19:56
[SPEAKER_01]: I think when you're doing specifically seed that strategy of like, hey, it's really niche and like, cottage and like all of that is like extremely hard and so for me, it's like our strategy is we cast an extremely wide net.
20:06
[SPEAKER_01]: A big fear is that we don't take the, you know, the right first call.
20:10
[SPEAKER_01]: I, and so I'm still kind of working on that to be honest, I am like every day kicking myself because I'll go see a massive billion dollar new unicorn that's minted and they, the founder DM me two years ago, Rogo AI, micro one, like the list goes on.
20:24
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm just like, and then I literally retract out to all the recently, because I still the inbox on Twitter is so terrible that I just can't navigate it.
20:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I'll see there now, so when I go to message them to say congrats and I realize they already message me and then I'm extra embarrassed and like, well, I came to say congrats, but like, I'm an idiot.
20:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, you know, I'm so sorry.
20:40
[SPEAKER_01]: So when I would say like, we cast a white net, I want to see everything because also it helps, I think it improves.
20:48
[SPEAKER_01]: our helps for my idea of like what is the next wave that's coming and so like you look at the YC batches it's like that's interesting they're like on the forefront first money into a lot of these companies but like if of 200 companies that's a good way to index of like what is coming up in the future like what are people building what should we all have our eyes on like what's exciting with AI like are they it goes from co-pilot to like a gen tech too.
21:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and so we are trying to see a lot.
21:10
[SPEAKER_01]: However, Neil and I are concentrating to get better at it.
21:13
[SPEAKER_01]: I'd rather see quality deals like over quantity.
21:16
[SPEAKER_01]: So like, what we count as that is like, is it in a hot, like, more hot or market?
21:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Where like deals actually get down.
21:21
[SPEAKER_01]: It can't be in the middle of nowhere.
21:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Like in Maine that wouldn't make any sense.
21:24
[SPEAKER_01]: So like the obviously California Bay Area LA.
21:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Austin, I think it's great, Chicago for free, New York, clearly, and so those are usually our markets, and then how do we make sure that we have tons of connectivity?
21:36
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'd say like, my inbound is insane, and that just happens, I just need to be better at monitoring that, and then our, like, in terms of outbound.
21:45
[SPEAKER_01]: When Neil started, I said this to him, and I also did this when I was raising money for my first fund.
21:50
[SPEAKER_01]: But I was like, I want to get a check from all the top GPs.
21:53
[SPEAKER_01]: So like, I wanted like thrive and Kushner and like his support.
21:57
[SPEAKER_01]: And he started kind of the way I have, which is like a smaller family than our fund.
22:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, leafy, so all, like, others Peter Till came in and I was like, you know, like get the money from the big guys and like ask for like ask questions like, you know, not often, but like when I need guidance.
22:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Get the phone numbers of their associates, like the boots on the ground ground like dogs.
22:14
[SPEAKER_01]: So like I really told Neil, I said, I want you to go to all the top funds become best friends of all of their associates.
22:19
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll do a deal share.
22:20
[SPEAKER_01]: So we do this in the same month, they deal share.
22:21
[SPEAKER_01]: We've got like 150 Jeep, like the younger investors, the ones that we really love, though, cross fun, but investment we do.
22:28
[SPEAKER_01]: We share our top 15 deals a month that we see and they share theirs back and so we have like from that this insane flywheel Where I just want the connectivity.
22:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's tag it AIs great like it can just organize all of it So like Neil doesn't have to do as much work, but it's basically an analyst and so I think every month We see anywhere from 300 to 500 deals summers quieter and then the ones we really spend time with are probably 10 a week
22:49
[SPEAKER_01]: And then we do one-ish deal a month.
22:51
[SPEAKER_01]: So some people might be like that fun those way too wide, whatever.
22:53
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like I'm informed and I want to be informed like I want to know what's up and coming.
22:59
[SPEAKER_01]: And I want to feel like I met everybody because then people all sort of build the same stuff.
23:02
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's like do we meet all of them?
23:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Do we meet one of them?
23:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Like is this a new category?
23:06
[SPEAKER_00]: The 2026 primaries are taking shape, and if you have a strong opinion about how they're going to go, Calshy lets you actually trade on it.
23:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Calshy is the largest prediction market in the US, federally regulated and available in all 50 states.
23:17
[SPEAKER_00]: You're not betting against a house, you're trading against other people in a live market, taking yes or no positions on real-world events, like elections, fed rates, economic data, you name it.
23:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Right now on Kalshi, you can trade on the California Governor Race, Senate Outcomes, and it does another major political storylines as they develop.
23:34
[SPEAKER_00]: As the probability shifts, you can buy in or out of your position in real time.
23:38
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a completely new asset class, and honestly, one of the more interesting ways to have skin in the game, on what you're already watching and know about closely.
23:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Download the Kalshi app.
23:46
[SPEAKER_00]: That's K-A-L-S-H-I, and use code trailblazers to get $10 when you trade $10.
23:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Or go to calshy.com slash r slash trailblazers to accept this $20 offer.
23:57
[SPEAKER_00]: With calshy, you can trade on anything.
23:59
[SPEAKER_00]: 18 plus only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply.
24:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors.
24:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Prices, values, and available markets may differ from those mentioned.
24:08
[SPEAKER_00]: For more information, see calshy.com slash regulatory.
24:11
[SPEAKER_00]: So quick experiment, think about the last long message you typed.
24:15
[SPEAKER_00]: A slack thread, a promptant to claw, a detailed email, it probably took you 10 minutes, maybe even 20, to get it just right.
24:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Now imagine you just set it out loud instead.
24:24
[SPEAKER_00]: That is the whole pitch for whisper flow.
24:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Whisper flow is a voice to text that actually works in every app on every device.
24:30
[SPEAKER_00]: You speak naturally and it outputs clean, formatted text that's ready to send.
24:34
[SPEAKER_00]: No set up, no integrations, no fixing, weird transcription errors.
24:38
[SPEAKER_00]: It works in Gmail, Slack, notion,
24:42
[SPEAKER_00]: And unlike the built-in dictation on your phone, whisper flow actually removes all filler words, mid-sentence corrections, and jargon.
24:49
[SPEAKER_00]: What I love most too is that it perfectly matches my style.
24:52
[SPEAKER_00]: So I often type in all lowercase letters and say things like LMK, which means let me know in shorthand, and it auto-adjusts it for me.
25:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Like many of you, I also do a lot of brain dumping into LLMs.
25:03
[SPEAKER_00]: So instead of typing it all out, I just speak my windy train of thought into whisper flow, which is infinitely faster than trying to get my fingers
25:12
[SPEAKER_00]: If you do any serious writing or just send a lot of messages, using Whisper Flow is a no-brainer.
25:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Get one whole month of Whisper Flow Pro completely free at ref.wisperflow.au slash trailblazers.
25:23
[SPEAKER_00]: That's rf.wisperflow.wisperflow.wsprflo.au.au slash trailblazers.
25:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's so much of the issue with emerging managers too is like you find a great team and you find a great idea but there's another 10 people doing it and it's like are you betting on the right team?
25:36
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's so much of it.
25:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And when you have that coverage you can't bet on that, which is amazing.
25:40
[SPEAKER_00]: You can see, yeah, who was actually the one horse we went about here?
25:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that's the hard thing to put what we do.
25:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Like when you're a first money or me, like like, because I can't remember if you're just doing it early but like, if I'm truly the first check into a company and I call pre-seed up to 3 million if it's over 3.
25:52
[SPEAKER_01]: It's seed and then now it could be a seed round could be like up to 10 million right now.
25:57
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, and then the next question is always like, I'm like, you know, I love the worst deals we've done are B plus founders with A plus ideas.
26:04
[SPEAKER_01]: I like swear by that.
26:05
[SPEAKER_01]: And so it's like, how do we make sure even if we fall into the A dig is it's the first time we've heard it.
26:09
[SPEAKER_01]: I swear this always happens.
26:10
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the first time we hear an idea and the past we've made that investment in three weeks later.
26:14
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a way better team.
26:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Like there's just a bigger round, but it's like wait, like we should have been patient because now more eyes are on this market and it's gonna get gobbled up.
26:22
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I just am like we have to patient.
26:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Totally.
26:27
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd love to hear your thoughts on content.
26:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I know you've had like a rollercoaster journey with it, but it's very much what's brought you here.
26:33
[SPEAKER_00]: I would say what's your take on the importance of content for up and coming VCs?
26:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Does it matter?
26:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Does it not?
26:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And what's your relationship with it today and going forward?
26:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
26:44
[SPEAKER_01]: So I will say, I'm not a student to the venture content game as much as I wish I was, because I do know that there were at least, I don't know, 15 to 25 GPs using Twitter away back in the day before I was like 10 years ago.
26:58
[SPEAKER_01]: I know like Fred Wilson and the USB team like kind of like have this amazing blog that they still all contribute to that apparently has been around forever and they've been sharing their ideas.
27:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Like that was essentially I think the equivalent of us like tweeting like crazy or like, you know, posting.
27:10
[SPEAKER_01]: And I say that is a huge compliment to them.
27:13
[SPEAKER_01]: I think what's interesting is when I started in 2021, there were really no one that was out there being really opinionated about like the day-to-day of this job.
27:21
[SPEAKER_01]: I think people will always write your sort of thought piece of them where they think the market's going.
27:24
[SPEAKER_01]: I think I see a lot of that now.
27:25
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm seeing a lot more partners come out of the woodwork and writing blog posts.
27:28
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think that is probably their introverted way of saying, I'm never going to be like somebody that's hot on the x. I don't have the courage or confidence or people just don't like to be kicks in the face, which I, by the way, completely understand.
27:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and you probably do too.
27:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and so I think that like it's been interesting to see the evolution.
27:43
[SPEAKER_01]: So I came in like guns blazing because a couple of friends that are now at Big VC Father's Crack smoke because they were very anti that one knew, you know, but they were like, you should be on Twitter your VC and then I was like, this job is so silly.
27:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody is like, so like, everybody's ego so big.
27:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Why does everybody like, you know, whatever, forever?
27:59
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I started building the brand by base we gave you my opinion on the day to day of the job.
28:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, you know, raising funds is really inefficient.
28:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Why does it work this way or like, whatever it may be?
28:08
[SPEAKER_01]: And then for two years everyone was like, Elpes are gonna hate that, don't do it.
28:11
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was all other GPs being like, I don't know if you should be doing that.
28:13
[SPEAKER_01]: And then two years later, I'm getting calls from the same GPs saying, hey, so like in our partner meeting, like we all needed build personal brands of the future.
28:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Like how do I get started on the internet?
28:22
[SPEAKER_01]: And this was in 2024.
28:24
[SPEAKER_01]: And then now we're in 26 and everyone has a podcast.
28:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Podcast is like a funny machine to hide behind like you on your own firm.
28:30
[SPEAKER_01]: It's very different.
28:30
[SPEAKER_01]: But like all of the massive funds trying to find like talking heads to like bolt on to this like it doesn't make any sense to me because I'm like
28:39
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the beauty of it is that it's a reflection of you, the inner viewer and your interest.
28:44
[SPEAKER_01]: And I kind of like, I think that's a sort of sacred, like, like, I think when you kind of like, plopped down a media person and this is like no shade everyone's doing a good job.
28:52
[SPEAKER_01]: People are going to hate me for saying this, like I love you, new media team, and interesting.
28:55
[SPEAKER_01]: But like, you know, it just becomes this like,
28:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Like it's not um there's sort of a separation of like the people doing the job and then like what what the platform is And the actual investments themselves and all of that.
29:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Does it make sense?
29:07
[SPEAKER_00]: 100% And I think also a lot of traditional venture separates it.
29:09
[SPEAKER_00]: There's like the investing side of the house and the marketing side of the house and You know, not a lot are doing it as one.
29:15
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the person who actually does the investing job is the one that's actually doing the interviewing and doing the marketing and yeah I think you're one of the few people who Does both sides.
29:23
[SPEAKER_00]: You see the deals you're in the mix.
29:24
[SPEAKER_00]: You know you make the chat.
29:25
[SPEAKER_00]: You write the checks
29:26
[SPEAKER_00]: but then you also were the one making the content doing the thing and you're like right there in it.
29:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah and I tried that you know I tried the podcast thing but I am so authentic it is like it is a core value like I cannot not be myself and be honest that I find it very difficult to when I was trying with the podcast I was like okay well I wanted to interview like the like best seed series A founders that know new about yet.
29:47
[SPEAKER_01]: And then there are fun interviews because the founders have nothing to lose like it's great banter.
29:50
[SPEAKER_01]: The problem is nobody wants to watch it because they're like who is that person?
29:53
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't know.
29:54
[SPEAKER_01]: They'll watch it.
29:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Hopefully you're slater when they realize they were interviewed at the series A.
29:57
[SPEAKER_01]: What people who they want to hear from for clicks is like the billing and dollar plus founders.
30:03
[SPEAKER_01]: The issue with that is they all have PR teams.
30:04
[SPEAKER_01]: It's really scripted.
30:05
[SPEAKER_01]: I have to send all the questions in advance.
30:07
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's like I literally hate every second of it.
30:09
[SPEAKER_01]: And I love these people individually and do them really well.
30:11
[SPEAKER_01]: But the interview is painful.
30:13
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, I can't get a thing out of it.
30:15
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't even think I could ask them.
30:16
[SPEAKER_01]: You're opening question.
30:17
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it would be like against the rules.
30:18
[SPEAKER_01]: So it just becomes this like, and I understand, especially if you're a pre-IPO, like you probably don't want to be saying, like, ridiculous, you know, like, you probably don't want to be being too honest.
30:26
[SPEAKER_01]: But I find that to be just really uninteresting.
30:28
[SPEAKER_01]: And so back to like sort of the content strategy.
30:30
[SPEAKER_01]: For me, it was never strategy.
30:31
[SPEAKER_01]: It was like, hey, I'm being myself and people really want to follow.
30:34
[SPEAKER_01]: I think, at two, I'm still asking myself, like, I really enjoy teaching and like giving back, like content for me and TikTok and like talking about investing and like, hey, founder tips here, or, hey, you want to go start a coffee shop.
30:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I'm just interested in everything.
30:47
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, whenever I'm learning, I want to share that, like, the little things along the way, nothing makes me happier and fires me up more than somebody saying, thank you so much.
30:54
[SPEAKER_01]: I learned a lot from this.
30:56
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's like my on the side project that happens to work and I keep it in the ecosystem.
31:00
[SPEAKER_01]: So right now that's where it's all focused on like how can I teach as many people as possible and by the way it builds insane brand recognition because you're adding value to the world like you're giving people a lot and it's all related to tech or business building.
31:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Twitter, I'm just kind of like
31:14
[SPEAKER_01]: It's too big for me.
31:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I'm like it's too big and even J.K. because like V.C.
31:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Braggs is like destroying me and especially when I was going through all this pregnancy stuff, it was like eating me alive and everyone's like to cool spiraling and I was like, well, so be it, but like stop, I can eat to me.
31:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, this is not the time of my life for this.
31:30
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I after that, what was it?
31:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, J.K. was like, he was like, you're a public figure now, he commented and I was like, what?
31:39
[SPEAKER_01]: And I really liked my husband.
31:40
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, I had, I sat with that for a few days and I was like, gross.
31:42
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I was like, I'm not a, I'm just a person trying to build a firm.
31:46
[SPEAKER_01]: By the way, I have no massive wins yet.
31:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, there's no DPI.
31:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I want to make my LPs a lot of money that were not there yet.
31:52
[SPEAKER_01]: And so it just feels like really gross to be like, you can have this status and be no one.
31:57
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's very bizarre.
31:58
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think I'm just trying to rework a lot of that.
31:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I don't want to be like a weirdo who's like,
32:02
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?
32:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I don't know.
32:03
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like kind of weird because your brands can really grow and then to me I'm like, wait, I'm still in nobody like, you know, like, let's just all be nice.
32:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, just the disconnect between how other people see you and how you see yourself.
32:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, because you have so much that you still want to prove, but you also, I think other people see how far you've come because I know DPI's everything in our business.
32:19
[SPEAKER_00]: But there's also been so many wins in different ways along the way, you know, in terms of like,
32:24
[SPEAKER_00]: You've been able to raise these funds.
32:25
[SPEAKER_00]: You've been able to get early into some great companies that look at on P.S.
32:28
[SPEAKER_00]: You know?
32:28
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think that here you though, that disconnect is really hard.
32:32
[SPEAKER_00]: I do have one final question before you wrap.
32:35
[SPEAKER_00]: You are someone who I know you're reading a book now on Reduction.
32:38
[SPEAKER_00]: I think of you of someone though who can handle a lot of it.
32:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Your bar, your tolerance bar for getting kicked in the faces, you call it, whether it's on social media, whether it's losing out on deals, whether it's just getting nose from LPs,
32:53
[SPEAKER_00]: I see you as someone who has achieved incredible things because you have such a high bar for being able to be rejected in a very high bar for resilience and grit.
33:05
[SPEAKER_00]: What's your advice for people who feel really knock down, who feel like they don't know if they can raise the round, they don't know if they can raise the fund, they don't know if they can serve their customers the way that they want.
33:16
[SPEAKER_00]: and they really want to.
33:18
[SPEAKER_00]: And they look at you as someone where they're like, wow, she has been through an immense amount.
33:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Great.
33:24
[SPEAKER_00]: How does she do it?
33:25
[SPEAKER_00]: What's your advice to them?
33:27
[SPEAKER_00]: So here's a problem I hear constantly from operators.
33:30
[SPEAKER_00]: The data exists, and the answers are somewhere in there, but getting to them, actually pulling a useful insight without bugging the data team or learning sequel, takes too long or just does not happen.
33:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Hex solves that.
33:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Hex is an AI analytics platform where anyone on your team can ask data questions in plain English and get real answers backed by your actual business context.
33:49
[SPEAKER_00]: No sequel required.
33:51
[SPEAKER_00]: and the best part is that Hex shows you exactly how it's data agents think, so you can see where the logic comes from and trust the output.
33:57
[SPEAKER_00]: The more your team uses it, the smarter it gets.
34:00
[SPEAKER_00]: From seed stage founders running lean to larger orgs dealing with serious data complexity, Hex is built to scale with you.
34:07
[SPEAKER_00]: It's game-changing for people like me in particular, who want to understand what's going on under the hood, but are not the real data experts.
34:13
[SPEAKER_00]: It's funny too, because I feel like every time I look over my operator friend's shoulders, whether they're in product or marketing or ops, they often have a hex dashboard pulled up.
34:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Trailblazers listeners get an exclusive 30-day free trial at hex.ai-slash-triblasers.
34:28
[SPEAKER_00]: That's HEX.ai-slash-triblasers.
34:31
[SPEAKER_01]: I will start by saying, I do, I talked about this because he's like, you don't give what anyone thinks about you.
34:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Why are you so upset about these little comments?
34:41
[SPEAKER_01]: And the only ones I get upset about are from people I admire.
34:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Like some time like people that like when the Keith stuff happened, I've nothing but respect for Keith.
34:49
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's just poor internet, I get or something.
34:51
[SPEAKER_00]: And tell everyone what happened there.
34:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Just a piece of boy.
34:54
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he was in
34:58
[SPEAKER_01]: I had commented something about Miami and he took it as a jab and I probably had wine and I don't know but I said something like and I genuinely my husband and I were considering moving to Miami so he spent a few weeks there and I didn't meet any founders and so I tweet like I've been in Miami for I think a week or two and I haven't met any founders yet and Keith responded and said something like guys been so long now he said they're too busy succeeding to talk to a third tier VC
35:20
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm not going to be cry or I was like oh my god my career's over like drop my phone and it was like I can't even like do this and then apparently deleted a few minutes later and then someone took a screenshot and posted it and then it went viral and like attacking him for it and just ballooned at this whole thing.
35:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, in some ways I think like some of my LPs really I think it was actually good for you like your brand and all of that like the whole third tier BC thing I think my Twitter was like 10,000 Um, in a lot of ways like thank you Keith like I think I built a backbone from that just on like the Twitter stuff It was like the first time on the internet like somebody I really respected like came for me and like in a big way and I was like that's terrible
35:56
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I was like, is anything ever going to be as bad as that?
35:59
[SPEAKER_01]: So like, thanks Keith.
35:59
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, because now I'm like, I don't know, like these he brags and just annoyed because I was like pregnant or postpartum and going through a lot.
36:04
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, I just need this to stop and also they make a lot of money.
36:08
[SPEAKER_01]: And like, because they get a lot of followers and engagement from my tweets.
36:11
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's why they retweet me so much.
36:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and so I was like, well, if anyone's going to monetize on my content, like, my content, it's me.
36:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and so they are blocked.
36:18
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was just like, it's gross that they can still like repost my stuff.
36:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, I in terms of feedback for people.
36:26
[SPEAKER_01]: J.K. Rowling has this quote that I love, which is like, she's like rock bottom is the foundation from which I built my life.
36:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And I say this to myself all the time, which is, when you, I don't know your personal story for anyone listening, but in case this resonates, I grew up with absolutely nothing one of seven.
36:40
[SPEAKER_01]: I was a number five and I was the odd one out and like never had any friends.
36:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I like desperately wanted to go back to school.
36:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I took myself in at seven and like, because of right when the sun went down cause I couldn't wait to go back to school.
36:51
[SPEAKER_01]: My school teachers would like let me do sleepovers at their house because they knew we had no food or anything And so like to me, I'm kind of like are all these like random bullies who have like feed back for me That I've never gone through hardship or like aren't trying anything like do they really matter?
37:03
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't even notice like I don't look across it my other peers or down anyone else I look way up sinners like the people that you like compare yourself to are like he's like it's like that's insane But you would even be like disappointed that you had a bad day because you're not there.
37:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, which is basically like chush chush
37:19
[SPEAKER_01]: But he's like, you know, like, every day I wake up, but I'm like, I'm not even close.
37:23
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I think it's just a question of like, are the people that are making you feel like crap or commenting?
37:29
[SPEAKER_01]: The people that do that have nothing going on and nothing better to do.
37:33
[SPEAKER_01]: I have literally tried, this is a screwed up thing to say, I'll leave you with this.
37:37
[SPEAKER_01]: I have tried to create a non-accounts myself on X.
37:41
[SPEAKER_01]: so that I could be rude one or two times and I literally couldn't even do it.
37:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I was like, I can't even be mean to someone because I know how much that socks and that's just gross.
37:50
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's like, just to make myself feel better.
37:52
[SPEAKER_01]: This is stupid.
37:53
[SPEAKER_01]: But like one time I was like, no, like you're stupid.
37:55
[SPEAKER_01]: But like on a different account and then I was like, that's what I literally can't even do that.
37:58
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think it's like whoever you are trying to be in your life, you are going to outgrow and shed.
38:04
[SPEAKER_01]: the person that you were in that network that you're with.
38:07
[SPEAKER_01]: And every period of your life, you're going to have a new chapter of friends and probably for 10 years.
38:11
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you get to live long enough, like I was just at my husband's grandmother's funeral.
38:17
[SPEAKER_01]: And she had friends there.
38:18
[SPEAKER_01]: She was 86.
38:20
[SPEAKER_01]: And they also up and they're like, I've known Judy for 15 years and I'm like, they miss her whole life.
38:24
[SPEAKER_01]: That's insane.
38:25
[SPEAKER_01]: They've met her in her set like when she was 71, like they don't even know anything about her marriage and having kids and like all of that.
38:31
[SPEAKER_01]: So what I'd say is people will forget they're not thinking about you.
38:34
[SPEAKER_01]: They're miserable and awful.
38:35
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you want to keep going, you're going to shed a lot of people in the real one stay.
38:39
[SPEAKER_01]: So just you get one life, I'll get it.
38:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Like that's my feedback.
38:43
[SPEAKER_00]: I love it Nicole.
38:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much for being here.
38:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much for having me.
38:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for listening to Trailblazers.
38:49
[SPEAKER_00]: If you found this conversation valuable, follow the show, share it with a friend and leave a review.
38:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Most of all, please subscribe to our channel.
38:56
[SPEAKER_00]: It helps more contrarian builders find us.
38:59
[SPEAKER_00]: To learn more about this podcast, you can visit Trailblazerspod.com.
39:03
[SPEAKER_00]: To learn more about our venture capital firm, you can visit parkrangerscapt.com or just follow along on socials,
39:09
[SPEAKER_00]: at Erica Under Score Winger.
39:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Until next time, keep trailblazing.