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Soraya Darabi on Social-Media Startups (Podcast) · Masters in Business

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  Speaker 1: M This is mesters in Business with Very Results on
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  Speaker 1: Bluebird Radio. This week on the podcast, I have an
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  Speaker 1: extra special guest. Her name is Soriah Durrabi. She is
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  Speaker 1: a venture capital and impact investor who has an absolutely
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  Speaker 1: fascinating background working for Verset with the New York Times
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  Speaker 1: social media group, then with a startup that eventually gets
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  Speaker 1: purchased by Open Table, and then becoming a venture investor
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  Speaker 1: that focuses on women and people of color lead startups,
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  Speaker 1: which is not merely a way to quote unquote do good,
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  Speaker 1: but it's a broad area that is wildly underserved by
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  Speaker 1: the venture community and therefore is very inefficient, meaning there's
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  Speaker 1: a lot of upside in this. You can both do
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  Speaker 1: well and do good by investing in these areas. I
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  Speaker 1: found this to be absolutely fascinating, and I think you
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  Speaker 1: will also if you're at all interested in entrepreneurship, social
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  Speaker 1: media startups, deal flow, how funds um identify who they
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  Speaker 1: want to invest in, what it's like to actually experience
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  Speaker 1: an exit as an entrepreneur, I think you'll find this
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  Speaker 1: to be quite fascinating. So, with no further ado, my
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  Speaker 1: conversation with t M VS Soriah Dorobi this is mesters
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  Speaker 1: in Business with very renaults on Bluebird Radio. My special
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  Speaker 1: guest this week is Soriah Darraby. She is the co
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  Speaker 1: founder and general partner of t m V, a venture
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  Speaker 1: capital firm that has had a number of exits despite
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  Speaker 1: being relatively young. Six of t MV startups are led
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  Speaker 1: by women or people of color. Previously, she was the
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  Speaker 1: co founder of food Spotting, an app named App of
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  Speaker 1: the Year by Apple and Wire that was eventually purchased
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  Speaker 1: by Open Table. Soriah Darabi, Welcome to Bloomberg. Oh my goodness, Barry,
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  Speaker 1: thank you for having me. I've been looking forward to
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  Speaker 1: this conversation since our previous discussion. We were on a
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  Speaker 1: Zoom call with a number of people discussing blockchain and
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  Speaker 1: crypto and it was really quite fascinating, and I thought
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  Speaker 1: you had such an unusual and interesting background. I thought
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  Speaker 1: you would make a perfect guest for the show. Let's
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  Speaker 1: start with you were manager of Digital Partnerships and Social
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  Speaker 1: Media at the New York Times when social media was
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  Speaker 1: really just ramping up. Tell us about what that was like. Well,
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  Speaker 1: tell us what you did in the late aughts at
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  Speaker 1: the Times. Oh. Absolutely, I was fresh faced at a University.
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  Speaker 1: A had recently graduated with mostly a journalism concentration from
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  Speaker 1: Georgetown and did a small stint conte Nast right around
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  Speaker 1: the time they acquired Reddit for what will soon be
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  Speaker 1: nothing because red it's expecting to i PO around fifteen
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  Speaker 1: billion and m that experience it read it really offered
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  Speaker 1: me um a decent understanding of convergence, you know, what
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  Speaker 1: was happening to digital media properties as they partnered for
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  Speaker 1: the first time with nascent but scaling social media platforms,
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  Speaker 1: and so The New York Times generously offered me a
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  Speaker 1: role that was originally called Manager of buzz Marketing I
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  Speaker 1: think that's what they called social media in two thousand
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  Speaker 1: and six, and then that eventually evolved into Manager of
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  Speaker 1: Digital Partnerships and Social Media, which in that sence meant
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  Speaker 1: that we were aiming to be the first media property
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  Speaker 1: in the world to partner with companies that our household
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  Speaker 1: named today but back in the day were fairly unknown
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  Speaker 1: to facebooks and the Twitters, of course, but also platforms
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  Speaker 1: that really took off for a while and then um plateaued,
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  Speaker 1: but potentially you know, the Tumblers of the world. And
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  Speaker 1: it was my responsibility to understand how we could effectively
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  Speaker 1: generate um an understanding of the thing demographics of these platforms,
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  Speaker 1: have a kid potentially bring income into The Times for
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  Speaker 1: working with them, but more importantly, how the journalists could
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  Speaker 1: authentically represent themselves on new mediums. And so that was
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  Speaker 1: a really wonderful role to have directly out of university.
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  Speaker 1: And then you know, introduced me to folks with whom
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  Speaker 1: I still work today. Huh. That's quite interesting. So when
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  Speaker 1: you're looking at a lot of these companies you mentioned
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  Speaker 1: Facebook and Twitter and Tumbler, um, how do you know
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  Speaker 1: if something is going to be a Facebook or my Space,
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  Speaker 1: a Twitter or a tumbler, what's gonna survive or not?
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  Speaker 1: When you're cutting deals with these companies on behalf of
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  Speaker 1: the Times, are you thinking in terms of, hey, who's
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  Speaker 1: going to stick around? That wasn't that much earlier that
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  Speaker 1: the dot com implosion took place prior to you starting
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  Speaker 1: with The Times. It's true, although I don't remember the
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  Speaker 1: dot com implosion. So maybe that naive Ka helped because
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  Speaker 1: all I had was enthusiasm, unbridled enthusiasm for these new companies,
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  Speaker 1: and I I operated then and now still with a
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  Speaker 1: data approach to business. You know, testing out new platforms
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  Speaker 1: and and trying to track the data. What scaling at?
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  Speaker 1: What velocity is this platform scaling? And can we hit
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  Speaker 1: your ride on a rocket ship if they will still allow.
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  Speaker 1: But a lot of our partnerships then and now as
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  Speaker 1: an investor are predicated upon relationships, and so you know,
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  Speaker 1: it's most I think terrific investors that I listened to
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  Speaker 1: who I listened to in your show, like at least
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  Speaker 1: we'll talk to you about the importance of believing in
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  Speaker 1: the founder and the founder's vision and um And that
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  Speaker 1: was the case back then, remains the case today. So
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  Speaker 1: when you were at the times you your tenure there
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  Speaker 1: very much overlapped the Great Financial Crisis. You're looking at
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  Speaker 1: social media? How did that manifest the world of social
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  Speaker 1: media when it looked like the world of finance was
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  Speaker 1: imploding at that time? Well, it was a very interesting time.
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  Speaker 1: I remember having quite literally thirty second meetings with certain
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  Speaker 1: um as. He would run upstairs to my floor and
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  Speaker 1: the eighth floor to talk about a deal book app
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  Speaker 1: that we wanted to launch, and then he would run
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  Speaker 1: back down to his death to do much more important work.
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  Speaker 1: I think um in in reviewing the financial crisis to
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  Speaker 1: the world. So thirty second meetings aside, uh, you know,
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  Speaker 1: it was considered to be in some ways a great
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  Speaker 1: awakening for the web two point oh era. Um, as
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  Speaker 1: the economy was bottling out like any recession, it also
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  Speaker 1: offered a really interesting opportunity for entrepreneurs, many of whom
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  Speaker 1: had just been laid off or um, we're looking at
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  Speaker 1: this as a sizeable moment to begin to work on
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  Speaker 1: a side hustle or a life pursuit. And so there's
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  Speaker 1: you know, it's unsettling, of course, any recession or any
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  Speaker 1: great awakening, but you know, lemonade lemons, when the opening
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  Speaker 1: door closing, there was a there was a true opportunity
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  Speaker 1: as well for social media founders, UH, founders focusing on
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  Speaker 1: convergence in any industry really, many of which were predicated
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  Speaker 1: in New York to begin, um, you know, tinkering on
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  Speaker 1: an idea that could ultimately become quite powerful. Because if
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  Speaker 1: you're at the earliest stage of the riskiest asset classing venture,
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  Speaker 1: there's always going to be seed funding for a great
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  Speaker 1: founder and a great idea. And so I think, um,
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  Speaker 1: some of the smartest people I've ever met in my life,
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  Speaker 1: I met at the onset of the aftermath of that
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  Speaker 1: of that particular era in time. So you mentioned side hustle. Um,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: Let's talk a little bit about food Spotting, which is
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  Speaker 1: described as a visual geolocal guide to dishes instead of restaurants,
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  Speaker 1: which which sounds appealing to me um and it was
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  Speaker 1: named app of the Year by both Apple and Wired.
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  Speaker 1: How do you go from working at a giant organization
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  Speaker 1: like The Times to a start up with you and
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  Speaker 1: a co founder and a handful of other coders working
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  Speaker 1: with you. Well, five or six minutes a week after
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  Speaker 1: my day job at the New York Times, I would
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  Speaker 1: go to networking events with technologist and entrepreneurs after hours.
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  Speaker 1: I saw that as as a priority UM to be
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  Speaker 1: able to partner from the earliest infancy with interesting companies
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  Speaker 1: for that media entity, I needed to at least know
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  Speaker 1: who these founders were in New York and Silicon Valley,
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  Speaker 1: and so, without a true agenda other than you know,
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  Speaker 1: keen curiosity to learn what these businesses were all about,
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  Speaker 1: I would go to the New York Tech meet Up,
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  Speaker 1: which Scott Hyperman of meetup dot com is now a
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  Speaker 1: cherished LP and my fund would create and back then
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  Speaker 1: the New York tech meet up with fewer than forty people.
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  Speaker 1: I believe it's in um, the tens of thousands now
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  Speaker 1: in New York City alone, and so UM it was
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: there that I met some really brilliant people, and in
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  Speaker 1: a particular a gentleman my age who was building a
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  Speaker 1: cloud computing company that UM you know it was was
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: essentially architraging aws to repopulate consumer facing UH cloud data
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: services for enterprises BT BBC play and we all thought
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: it would be Dropbox. UM the to be ultimately wasn't.
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  Speaker 1: But I will tell you the people whom I worked
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  Speaker 1: at that startup because I left the New York Times
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  Speaker 1: to join that startup, so this day remained some of
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  Speaker 1: the most successful people in Silicon Valley and Alley. And
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: actually one of those persons is a partner at our
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: firm now darsh and he was the co founder of
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: that particular company which was called drop TODAYO. So I
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  Speaker 1: stayed there very quickly. I was there for that six months.
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  Speaker 1: But as that startup, I observed how a young person
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: my age could build a business for his bc UH.
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  Speaker 1: He was the son of a VC and so he
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: was exceptionally attuned to the changing landscape of venture and
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  Speaker 1: you know how to position the company so that it
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  Speaker 1: would be attractive to the ore ease of the world
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  Speaker 1: and the the b f j's and define those for
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: us are pardon UM still today very relevant and very
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: successful venture capital firms UM and in particular, they were
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  Speaker 1: backing a lot of the most interesting ideas and a
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  Speaker 1: whip two point out era when I joined this particular
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  Speaker 1: startup in in two thousand and ten. Well, that startup
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  Speaker 1: was acquired by Facebook and I often say no thanks
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  Speaker 1: to me, but the mafia that left that particular startup
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  Speaker 1: continues to this day to co invest with one another
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  Speaker 1: and help one another's idea succeed. And it was there
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  Speaker 1: that I began to build the confidence I think that
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  Speaker 1: I really needed to explore my own entrepreneurial ideas or
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  Speaker 1: to help accelerate ideas. And Food Spotting was a company
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  Speaker 1: that I was advising UM while at that particular startup
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  Speaker 1: that was really taking off. This was in the early
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: days of when Instagram was still in data and we
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: observed that the most commonly posted photos on Instagram were
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: of food, and so by following that lead, we basically
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: built an app around and activity that continues to take
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  Speaker 1: place every single day. I still see food photos on
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  Speaker 1: Twitter every time I opened up my stream and decided
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  Speaker 1: to match that with an algorithm that showed folks wherever
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: they were in the world, and in Greece, I'm I
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: want to Bendi Coopka, or I'm in Japan Okinawa. We
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: helped people discover not just the Michel unrated restaurants or
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: the most popular local kant in New York City, but
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  Speaker 1: rather what's good dish that they should be ordering. And
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: then what the app was extremely good at was populating
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: beautiful photos of that particular dish and then mirroring them
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  Speaker 1: with accredited reviews from the zagats to the world, but
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: also popular celebrity chefs like Marcus Damilton in New York.
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  Speaker 1: And that's why we took off, because it was a
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  Speaker 1: cult beloved app of its time. Back when there were
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: only three geolocation apps in the iTunes app store, it
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: was We and Twitter and four Square, so there was
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: a first move advantage. Looking back in hindsight, I think
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: we sold that company too soon. Open Table bought the
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: business a year and a half later, Priceline bought Open Table.
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  Speaker 1: Both were, you know, generous liquidity events for the founders
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  Speaker 1: that enabled us to become angel investors. But sometimes I
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  Speaker 1: wish that that app still existed today because I could
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  Speaker 1: see it being still incredibly handy in my day to
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: day life, to say the least. So so did you
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  Speaker 1: have to raise money for um Foods spotting or did
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  Speaker 1: you just bootstrap it? And how did that experience compare
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  Speaker 1: with what that exit was like we did. We raised
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: from tremendous investors like I didn't thinking of Felicia's Ventures,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: whom I think of as being one of the best
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  Speaker 1: angel investors of the world. He was on the board,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: but we didn't read that much capital before the business
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  Speaker 1: was ultimately sold. And what I learned in some of
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: those early conversations, I would say, but may have ultimately
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: led to l Oyes and term sheets, was that so
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: much of m and as about whining and dining. And
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: as a young person, particularly for me, you and I
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: discussed before the show variable from New York. I am
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: not from a business oriented family to say the least.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: My mom's in academic my father was a cab driver
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: in New York City, and so there are certain elements
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: of this game raising venture and ultimately trying to exit
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: your company that you don't learn from a business book,
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: and I think navigating that as a young person was complicated.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: If I had to speak economically, m quite quite fascinating.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: What is purposeful change? Well, the word purpose, I suppose,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: especially in the VC game, could come across as somewhat
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: of a cliche, but we try to be as specific
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: as possible when we allude to the impact that our
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: investments could potentially make, and so specifically we invest in
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: five verticals at our early stage New York City based
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: venture fund. We invest in what we call the care economy,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: which is companies making all forms of care of elder
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: care to pet care to healthcare more accessible and equitable.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: We invest in financial inclusion, so this is a spin
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: on fintech. These are companies enabling wealth creation, education, and
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: most importantly literate see for all. Something I think is
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: really important the democratization as financed. We invest in the
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: future of work, which our companies creating better outcomes for
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: workers and employees alike. We invest in the future of work,
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: which are companies creating better outcomes for workers and employers alike.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: We invest in purpose as it pertains to transportation, so
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: not immediately intuitive, but companies creating transparency and efficiency around
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: global supply chain and mobility. I can talk about why
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: we pick that category in a bit. And sustainability to
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: tech enabled sustainable solutions. This is our companies optimizing for
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: sustainability from process through product. With these five verticals combined,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: we have a sub species, which is that diverse founders
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: and diverse employee bases and diverse cap tables is not charity.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: It's simply good for business. And so in addition to
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: being hyper specific about the impact in which we invest,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: we also make it a priority and a mandate at
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: our firm to invest in the way the world truly looks.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: And when we say that on our website, we linked
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: a census data and so we invest in men and
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: women equally. We invest in diverse founders almost all of
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: the time, and um we track this with data and
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: precision to make sure that our investments reflect not just
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: one zip code in California, but rather America at large.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: And you have described this as non obvious founders. Tell
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: us a little bit about that phrase. Well, not obvious
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: is a turn you hear a lot when you go
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: out to Silicon Valley and uh, I don't know. I
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: think it was coined by a well known early Kapal
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: employee turned billionaire turned investor who actually have a conference
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: centered around non obvious idea And I love the phrase.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: Um I love thinking about you know, investment PC that
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: our countrary because when you have a contrary point of view,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: contrarion point of view, you often have outlier results because
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: if you're right, you're taking the risk and you're capturing
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: the reward. When you're investing in non obvious founders, it
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: should be that exact, exact, same outcome. And so it
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: always sort of befuddled me as a person with hard
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: to pronounce name in Silicon Valley. Why it was that
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: we're an industry that prides itself on investing in innovation
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: and groundbreaking ideas and the next frontier of X, Y
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: and Z, and yet all of those founders in which
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: we were investing collectively tended to kind of look at
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: the same They were coming from the same schools and
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: the same types of families, and so to me, there
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: was nothing innovative at all about backing that Wharton g
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: SB HBS guy who was second or third generation finance.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: And what really excites me about venture is, you know,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: capturing a moment in time that's young, but also the
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: energy is palpable around not only the idea in which
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: the founder is building, but the categories in which they're tackling.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: And then that sounds vague. I'll be a little bit
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: more specific, and so at t MV we try to
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: see things before they're even coming around the bend. For instance,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: we were early investors in a company called city Blockhealth,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: which is offering best in class healthcare specifically for low
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: income Americans. So they focus on the most most vulnerable
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: populations which are underserved with healthcare, and they're offering them
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: best in class healthcare access at affordable pricing because it's
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: predominantly covered through pay A relationships. And this company is
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: so powerful to us for three three reasons because it's
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: not simply offering how health care to the elite. It's
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: democratizing access to care, which I think is absolutely necessary
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: and turnamount for success of any kind. We thought this
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: was profoundly interesting because the population which they serve is
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: also incredibly diverse, and so when you look at that
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: investment over say a comparable company I won't name, means
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: that offers for profit health care out of pocket. You
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: can see why this is an opportunity that excites us
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: as impact investors, But we don't see the diversity of
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: the team as impact. We actually see that as their
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: unfair advantage because they are accessing the population authentically that
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: others might ignore. Let me see if I understand this correctly.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: When you talk about non obvious fine founders and spaces
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: like this, what I'm hearing from you is you're looking
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: at areas where the mare kid has been very inefficient
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: with how it allocates capital. That these areas are just
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: overlooked and ignored. Hey, if you want to go into
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: Silicon value and compete with everybody else and pay up
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: for what looks like the same old startup, maybe it'll
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: be successful, maybe it won't. That's hyper competitive and hyper efficient.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: These are areas that are just overlooked and there is
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: This is more than just do good ay for lack
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: of a better word, There are genuine economic opportunities here
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: with lots of potential upside. Absolutely. Um So, my business
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: partner and I, you know, she and I found each
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: other twenty years ago with undergrads at Georgetown, but we
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: went into business after she was successful and being one
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: of the only women in the world to take a
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: shipping business public with her family and and we got
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: together and we said, we have really unique access. She
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: and I um and the first STV that we collaborated
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: on back in Keen was for a young business at
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: the time started by two women that was focused on
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: medical apparel predominantly for nurses. Now it's nurses and doctors,
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: and they were offering a solution to make medical apparels
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: of scrubs more comfortable and more fashionable for nurses. I
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: happen to have nurses and doctors in my family, so
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: doing due diligence for this business was relatively simply called
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: my aunt who's nurse practitioner and nurse for life, and
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: she said, uh, absolutely, when you're you know, working in
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: a uniform at the hospital, you want something comfortable with
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: extra pockets that makes you look and feel good. The
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: VCS that they spoke to at the time, and they've
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: been very public about this in the beginning. Anyway, we're
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: less excited because they correlated this particular business with a
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: fashion company. But if you look back at our original
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: memo which I saved, it says figs now public on
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: the New York Back Exchange, is a utility business. It's
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: a uniform company that can verticalize beyond just medical apparel.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: And so we helped value that company at teen million
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: back into two thousand and sixteen, and this year um
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: they went public at a seven billion dollar market cap.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: And so what is particularly exciting for us, going back
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: to that conversation around non obvious founders, is that particular business,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: BIGS was the first company in history to have two
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: female co founders public. And when we think of success
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: at t MP, we don't just think about financial success
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: and I are are you know, cash on cash return
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: for our LPs. Of course we think about that, but
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: we also think who are we cheerleading and with whom
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: do we want to go into business and what's the
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: story on the other side of the sense that we
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: want to tell And uh, you know, we measure non
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: obvious not just based on gender or race, because I
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: think it's a little too precise in some ways. Sometimes
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: for non obvious is around geography. I was I'm calling
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: you from Athens, as you know, and in Greece yesterday
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: I got together with a fund manager. I'm lucky enough
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: to be An LP and her fund, and she was
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: talking about the average size of a seed round in
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Silicon Valley these days, hovering around thirty millions. And I'm
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: scratching my head because at our fund TNV, we just
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: don't see that. You know, we're investing in Baltimore, Maryland,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: and in Austin, Texas, and the average price for us
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: to invest the seed round is closer to five or
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: six million, and so we actually can capture larger ownership
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: of the pie early on and then developed a very
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: close knit relationship with these founders that might not be
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: as networked in the valley where there's thirty DC funds
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: to everyone that exists in Austin, Texas. And so yeah,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: I think I think you're you're right to say that
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: it's about inefficiencies in market, but also just around about
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: you know, being persistent and looking where where others are
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: not that that's quite intriguing. Your team is female lead.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: You have a portfolio of companies that's about six five
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: women and people of color. Tell us how you go
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: about finding these non obvious startups. That's a good question.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: You know. TMV celebrates its five year anniversary this year.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: So the way we go about finding companies now is
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: a bit different than the way we begin five years ago.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: Now it's systematic. We collectively is a partnership. There are
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: many of us take over fifty a month with tier
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: one venture capital firms that have known us for a while,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: like the work that we do. Believe in our value
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: add because the partnerships them prize to former operators, and
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: so we really roll up our sleeves to help. And
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: when you've invested with these firms enough times, they will
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: write to you and say, I found a company that's
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: a little too early for us for X, y Z reason,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: but it resonates and you know, I think it might
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: be for you. So we found some of our best
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: deals that day, but other times we found our deal
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: flow through building our own communities. And so when I
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: first started as a as a e M an emerging
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: manager of a VC firm, and roughly of LP capital
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: goes to e M each year. But that's sort of
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: an outsized percentage because when you think about you know,
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: the lea fixles of addition capital, taking one point three
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: billion of that pie, then you recognize the definition of
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: an emerging manager might need to change a bit um
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: so when I was starting as an e M, I
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: recognized that the landscape wasn't necessarily leveled. If you weren't
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: what's called the spin out UM, somebody that has spent
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: a few years at a traditional, established blue chip firm,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: then it's harder to, you know, develop and cultivate relationships
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: with institutional LPs who will give you a shot, even
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: though the data absolutely points to there being a real
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: opportunity at capturing lightning in a bottle if you find
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: the right e M with the right idea in the
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: right market conditions, which is certainly what we're in right now.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: And so I decided to start a network specifically tailored
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: around helping women fund managers connect to one another. And
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: it began at the WhatsApp group and a weekly Google
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: meet and has now blown into something that requires a
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: lot of dedicated times. We're hiring an executive director for
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: this group. It's called Transact Global UH two D fifty
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: women X fund managers globally from Hong Kong to Luxembourg
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: to Venezuela, Canada, um, Nigeria, you name it. There are
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: women fund managers in our group and we have one
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: of the most active deal flow channels in the world.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: And so two of our TMV deals over the last
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: year a fintech company combatting student debt and helping young
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: Americans day for retirement at the same time, as an example,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: came from this WhatsApp deal flow channel. So I think,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: you know, creating the community, being the change, so to speak,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: has been incredibly effective for us as a proprietary deal
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: flow mechanism. And then last and not least, I think that,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: you know, having some sort of media presence really has helped.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: And so um, you know, I had posted a podcast,
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: and I worked on building up what I think to
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: be a fairly organic Twitter following over the years. And
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: you know, we we surprise ourselves by getting some really
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: exceptional founders called pitching us on LinkedIn and on Twitter
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: because we make ourselves available as next gen e M.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: So that's that's a sort of long winded answer to
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: your question, but it's not the traditional means to say
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: the least are you the companies you're investing in? Are they?
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: And and I'll try and keep the simple for people
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: who are not all that world versed in the world
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: of venture. Is it seed stage, is it the A round,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: the B round, how far into their growth process do
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: you put money in, So it is a dominantly seed fund.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: We call our investments core investments. So these are checks
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: that average between and one and one point five million,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: for about one point to five million on average, we're
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: capturing ten to fiftent of a cap table and in
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: this era that's called a seed ground. It would probably
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: be called a series A ten years ago. And then
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: we follow on through the Series A and it macs
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: um take our pread at the B. So our goal
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: by a Series B is to have on average ten
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: percent at a cap. And then we give ourselves a
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: little bit of wiggle room with our modeling. We take
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: mars and moonshot investments with smaller checks, so we call
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: these initial interest checks, and initial interest means I'm interested,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: but your idea is so audacious it won't prove itself
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: up for three or four years. Or to be very honest,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: we weren't the first to get into this cap. Or
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: you know you're picking us a court over us, and
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: we understand, but let's see if we can just promise
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: you a bit of value add to edge our way
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: into your business. And oftentimes when you speak as a
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: former founder yourself at a high level of compassion, and
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: you promise with integrity that you're going to work very
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: hard for that company. They will increase the size of
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: their round and they will carve out space for you.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: And so we do those types of investments rarely ten
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: times in any given portfolio. But what's interesting in looking
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: back at some of our outliers from fund one, it
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: came from those initial interest checks. So that's our model
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: in a nutshell. We're pretty transparent about it. What we
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: like about this model is that it doesn't make us tigers.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: Were off the board by the b but we're still
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: owning enough of the cap table to be a meaningful
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: presence in the founders live and in their business, and
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: it allows us to feel like we're not spraying and praying.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: Spraying and praying is an amusing term, but I'm kind
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: of intrigued by the fact that we used to call
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: it's smart money, but you're really describing it as value
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: added capital. When a founder takes money from t MV,
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: they're getting more than just a check. They're getting the
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: involvement from entrepreneurs who have been through the process from
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: startup to capital raised to exit. Tell Us a little
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: bit about how that works its way into the deals
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: you end up doing, who you look at, and what
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: the sort of deal flow you see is like. Well,
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: years ago I had the pleasure of meeting a world
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: class advertiser and I was at his incredibly fancy office
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: down the wall street to that agency, and he described
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: to me with pride how he basically bartered his marketing
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: services for one percent of the unicorn and he was
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: sort of showing off a bit about how for very
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: little time and effort a few months he walked away
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: with a relatively large portion of a business. And I thought, yes,
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: that's clever, but for the founder, they gave up too
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: much of their business to right And yeah, I came
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: up with an idea that I floated by Marina back
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: in the day where our original deck for TMV Fund
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: one began with the slide marketing is the future of venture.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: Adventure is the future of marketing, meaning e f A
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: VC fund were to position itself more like an ad agency,
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: but rather than charging for its services, it's go to
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: market services. You offered them free of charge, but then
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: you were paid in equity and you could quantify the
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: value that you were offering to these businesses, and back
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: then people laugh at us, even though all around New
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: York City ad agencies we're really doing incredible work and
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: benefiting from the startups in that ecosystem. And so we
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: sort of changed the positioning a bit and now we
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: say to our LPs into our founders, you're both clients
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: of our firm. So we do think of ourselves as
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: an agency. But on one side of our marketplace you
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: have LPs and what they want is crystal clear. The
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: value that they derived from us is through community and
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: connect ativity and co investment, and that's it. It's it's
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: pretty cut and dry. Call me up once a year
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: when you have an exceptional opportunity, let me invest alongside you.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: Invite me to dinners four times a year, give me
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: some information and a point of view that I can't
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: get elsewhere. Thank you for your time, and I love that.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: It's it's a great relationship to have with incredibly smart people.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: It's cut and dry. It's so different. What founders want,
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: it's something more like a family. They want a VC
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: on their board, you know that they can turn to
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: during critical moments. Two am on a Saturday is not
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: an uncommon time for me to get a text message
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: from a founder saying what do I do? And so
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: what they wanted more like seven services for a period
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: of time, and they want to know when that relationship
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: should start and finish. So it's sort of the Montessori
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: approached adventure. We're going to tell them what we're going
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: to tell them, tell them what they're telling them, tell
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: them what they told them. We say to founders with
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: a reverse pitch deck, so we pitch them as they're
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: pitching us. Here's what we promised to deliver for you
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: for the first each and twe four months of your infancy,
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: and then we promise you will mostly get lost. You
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: can come back to us when your business is growing
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: if you want to do a tender and and we'll
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: operate an SPV through you, or if you simply want advice.
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: We're never going to ignore you. But our specialty are
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: our black belt, if you will, bury is in those
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: first twenty four months of your business that go to market.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: And so we've staffed up TNV to include, well, it's
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: punching above our weight, but the co founder of an
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: exceptionally successful consumer marketing business, a growth marketer, a recruiter
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: who helps one of our portfolio companies higher forty of
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: the earliest employees. We have a pr woman you've met
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: the as she's exceptional, who whom I don't know how
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: we would function sometimes because she's constantly writing and re
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: editing Prince releases for the founders with which we work.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: And then u Anna our copywriter who came from I
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: A C. And Sean our creative director, used to be
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: the design director for Rolling Stone, and I could go
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: on and on. So some firms called this a platform team,
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: but we call it to go to market team. And
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: then we promised a set number of hours for every
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: company that we invested into that and as a result,
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: UM No, that's just I'm I'm completely fascinated by that.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: Um But I have to ask, maybe this is an
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: obvious question or maybe it's not. So you you sound
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: very much like a non traditional venture capital firm. Who
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: are your limited partners, who are your clients and what
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: motivates them to be involved with TMV because it sounds
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: so different than what has been a pretty standard model
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: in the world of venture one that's been you know,
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: tremendously successful for the top tier farms. Our LP set
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: is UM crafted with intention. It's of our investors are institutional.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: This concludes institutional sized family offices, the family offices, and
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: the multi billions UM. We work with three major banks
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: fort of five hundred banks. We work with a couple
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: of corporate fortune five hundreds as investors or LPs, and
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: a couple of fund of funds, so that that's really
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: run of the mill for fifty of our investors. And
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: that's why I'm in Athens today. Our family offices global
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: family offices that I think are reinventing what venture is
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: going to look like in the future because wealth has
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: never been greater globally, there's a trillion dollars of assets
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: that are passing through the hands of one generation to
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: the next. And what's super interesting to me as a
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: woman is that historically a lot of that asset transfer
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: was from father to son, but actually, for the first
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: time in history, over fifty of those assets inheritors actually women.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: And so, as my business partner could tell you, because
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: Sheet herself as the next gen. In prior generations, women
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: were encouraged to go into the philanthropic or nonprofit side
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: of the family business, and the sons were expected to
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: take over the business with a family office, and all
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: of that is just comple weekly turned around in the
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: last ten years. And so my anchor investor is actually
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: a young woman. She's under the age of thirty five.
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: There's a little bit of our firm that's Indie rock
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: because we're not playing by the same rules of the
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: establishment is played by. But certainly we're posturing ourselves to
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: be able to grow into a blue chip firm, which
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: is why we want to maintain that balance of fifty
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: percent institutional and fifty percent. I would call it the
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: spoke capital. And for the LPs that are the spoke,
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: we work with an Australian family office, and UM Venezuela
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: and family office, and the Chilean family office, and a
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: Mexican family office, and and and so on. For those
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: family offices, we come to them, We invite them to
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: events in New York City, We give them personalized introductions
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: to our founders, and we get on the phone with
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: them whenever they'd like. We host zooms. We call them
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: the Future of Everything series. They can learn from us
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: and we get to know them as human beings. And
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: I think that there's a reason why UM two thirds
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: of our Fund one LPs converted over into Fund two
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: because they like that level of access. It's what the
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: modern LPs is really looking for. Let's talk a little
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: bit about some of the areas that you find intriguing.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: What sectors are really capturing your attention these days. What
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: are you most excited about. Well, there i am. I'm
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: most excited about five categories for which we've been investing
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: for for quite some time, but they're really being accelerated
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: due to pandemic and um a looming recession, and so
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: we're particularly fascinated by not just health care investing has
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: it been called in the past, but rather the care economy.
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: I'm not a huge fan of the term fem tech.
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: It always sounds like fembot to me. But care as
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: it pertains to women alone is a multi trillion dollar opportunity.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: And so when we think of the care economy, we
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: think of healthcare care, elder care, community care, personal care
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: as it pertains to young people, old people, men, women, children.
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: We buy for CAPE and we look for interesting opportunities
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: that don't exist because they've been undercapitalized and undervalued for
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: so long. Cave in point, we were early investors in
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: kind body, a reproductive healthcare company focused on women who
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: want to preserve their fertility, because if you look at
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: twenty ten cents is data, you can see that the
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: data has been there for some time that women in
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: particular were glaying marriage and childbirth. And there are a
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: lot of world famous economist who will tell you this.
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: You know, the global population will decline because we're aging
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: and we're not necessarily having as many children as we
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: would have in the past. Plus it's expensive, and so
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: we saw that as investors as a really interesting opportunity
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: and UM jumped on the chance to back China Bartosi,
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: who's incredible when she came to us with a way
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: to make fertility preservation less expensive. So she followed the
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: DTC playbook and she started with a mobile clinic UM
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: that helped women freeze their eggs etensively. That company has
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: gone on to raise hundreds pretty and that company is
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: now valued in the hundreds of millions UM. And for us,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: you know, it was as simple as following our intuition
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: as women fund managers. Now we know what our tears
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: are thinking about because we talked to them all the time.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: And uh, and I think the fact that you know,
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: we're bringing a new perspective to venture means that we're
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: also bringing a new perspective to what has previously been
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: called STEMPEC. We invest in financial inclusion. Everyone in the
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: world is investing in fintech um the self directed financial
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: mobile apps are always going to be capitalized, especially in
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: a post Robin Hood era. But we're specifically interested in
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: the democratization of access to financial information. And we're specifically
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: interested in student debt um and alleviating students debt in
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: America because not only is it going to be one
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: of the greatest challenges are our generation will have to overcome,
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: but it's also you know, prohibiting us from being out
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: the American dream. One point seven trillion dollars a student
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: that in America that needs to be alleviated. And then
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: we're interested in the future of work and long have been.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: This certainly was very much accelerated during the pandemic, but
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: we've been investing in the ten economy and remote work
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: for quite some time and so really proud to have
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: been the first check into a company called Braveley, which
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: is an HR chatpot that helps employees inside of a
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: company chat anonymously with hr reps outside of that company.
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: So that's ten ninety fine about issues like the EI
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: and inclusion and upward mobility and culture setting and what
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: to do when you're all of a sudden working from home.
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: So that's an example of a future of work business.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: And then in the tech enabled sustainable solutions category, it's amountful.
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: So let's call that sustainability. We are proud who have
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: been early investors in a company called Riddwell out of Seattle, Washington,
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: focused on not just private privatized recycling, but upcycling and reconnaissance.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: Where are our things going when we recycle them? You know,
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: for me, always been a pretty big question. And so
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: Ridwell allows you to re and up cycle things that
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: are hard to get rid of that of your home,
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: like children's eyeglasses and paint, battery and you know, single
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: use plastic, and it shows you where those things are going,
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: which I think is super cool and there's good reason
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: why it has one of the highest MPs scores net
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: promoter scores of any company either were worked with people
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: are craving this kind of modern solution. And last but
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: not least, we invest in transportation in part because of
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: the unfair advantage my partner, Marina brings to t MV.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: She comes from a maritime family, and so we can
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: pilot transportation technology within her own ecosystem. That's pretty great.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: But also because we're just fascinated by the fact of
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: the world commodities move on ship and the biggest contributor
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: to emissions in the world outside of you know, corporate
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: is coming from transportation, and so if we can sort
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: of figure out this industry, we can solve a lot
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: of the problems that our generation are inheriting. Now, these
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: categories might sound massive, and we do consider ourselves a
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: generalist firm, but we stick stick to five core sectors
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: that we truly believe in, and we give ourselves room
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: to kick out a sector or to add a new
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: one with any given new fund. For the most part,
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: we haven't needed to because these remain the categories that
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: are not only most appealing to us as investors, but
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: I think paramount to our generation. That's that's really intriguing.
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: Give us an example of a moon shot, or what
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: you called earlier a mars shot, a technology or a
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: company that can really be a game changer but may
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: not pay off for for quite a while. We just
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: backed a company that is focusing on uh food science.
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: Oh gosh, I can't really too much because they haven't
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: they haven't truly launched in the US, but maybe maybe
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: I'll kind of allude to it. They use crushed produce
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: like crushed potato skins to make plastic but biodegrades. And
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: so it's a Mars shot because it's a materials business
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: and it's a food science business rolled up into both
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: a CpG business and enterprise business. This particular material can
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: wrap itself around industrial plates. Even though it's audacious, it's
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: not really a Mars shot when you think about the
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: way the world is headed. Everybody wants to figure out
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: how do we consume less plastic and recycle plastic better.
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: And so if there are new materials out there that
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: will not only disintegrate but also in some ways feed
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: if the environment, it would be a no brainer. And
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: then if you add to the equation the fact that
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: it could be maybe not less expensive, but of comparable
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: pricing to be alternative. I can't think of a company
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: in the world that wouldn't switch to this solution. This
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: is plastic that you don't throw away, you just toss
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: in the garden and it becomes exactly exactly it should
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: help your guard and grow. Um. So yeah, so that
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: that's what I would call them mars shot in some ways,
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: but in other ways, it's just common sense. Right. So,
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: so let's talk a little bit about your investment vehicles,
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: you guys run. I want to make sure I get
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: this right to funds and three vehicles. Is that right?
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: We have two funds. They're both considered micro funds because
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: they're both under a hundred million, and then we operate
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: in parallel four SPVs UM that are relatively evergreen and
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: they serve as opportunistic investments to continue to double down
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: on our winners. SPVs special purpose investment vehicles. Yes, in
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: in UM the PE world, they're called side cars. That's
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: that's that's really interesting. UM. So how do these get structured?
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: Does everything look very similar? UM? When you have a fund,
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: how quickly do you deploy the capital? And typically how
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: long are you locked up? For our investors luck up?
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: For well, investors are usually in private equity or we
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: see funds locked up for ten years. That's not unusual. UM.
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: We have shown liquidity faster, certainly for fund one, it's
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: it's well in the black and uh and it's only
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: five years old, less four and a half years old.
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: So um, you know how do we make money. We
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: charge standard fees two on twenties is you know, the
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: rout brick that we operate by, and then lesser fees
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: for sidecars or direct investments. So that's that's kind of
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: how we stay in business. When you think about an
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: emerging manager starting their first fund, you know, management fees
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: are certainly not so we can live a lavish rock
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: and world life on the ten million dollar fund with
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: a two percent management. See, you're talking about two k
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: for the entire business to operate. So Marina and I
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: not only you know, anchored our first fund with our
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: own capital, but we didn't pay ourselves for four years.
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: It's not glamorous. I mean there's some friends of mine
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: that think the venture capital life is glam and it
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: is if you're on Sandhill Road, But if you're an
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: e M, it's a lot more like a startup where
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: you're burning the midnight oil. Um, you are bartering favors
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: with your friends, and you are begging the smartest people
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: you know to take a chance on you and to
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: invite you into their cap table, but it somehow works
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: out because we do put in that extra effort. I think.
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: I think the metrics, certainly for Fund one, have have
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: shown us that you know, we're in this for the
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: long hall now, so you have FUN one and FUN too.
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: Are there any plans of launching Fund three? Yes? Um,
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: I think that you know, given the proof points between
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: Fund one and Fund two, um, and a conversation that
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: my partner and I recently had, you know, five years
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: out early in this do we love this? We do? Okay,
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: this is our life's work. So you can see larger
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: and more demonstrable sized funds, but not in an outsized way,
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: not just because we can raise more capital now, but
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: because we want to build out a partnership and the
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: kind of culture that we always dreamed of working for
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: back when we were employees. So we have a very
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: diverse instead of colleagues with whom we couldn't operate. And
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: we'll be adding to the partnership in the next two
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: or three years, which is really exciting to say. UM.
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: So yes, the T and V will be around for
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: a while. That that's really interesting. I'm going to ask
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: you the question I ask any venture capitalists that I interview.
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: Tell us about your best and worst investments, and what
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: did you pass on that perhaps you wish you didn't.
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: Oh gosh, the film all list is so long and
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: so embarrassing. UM, let me start with with you know
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: what I passed on that I regret. Well, I don't
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: know if she really would have invited me to invest,
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: but only I had a wonderful conversation with a peer
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: from high school, Katrina Lake, when she was in beta
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: mode for spitch Fix. I think she was still at
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: HBS at the time or had just recently graduated from Harvard,
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: and Katrina and I had coffee in Minneapolis, where we
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: went to high school, and she was telling me about
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: the Netflix for clothing that she was building, And certainly
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: I regret um not really picking up on the clues
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: that she was offering in that conversation. UM, ditch Fix
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: had an incredible IPO and I'm a proud shareholder today.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: And UM. Similarly, when uh, my friends were starting cloud Flare,
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: which luckily they did bring me into pre I PO
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: and I'm grateful for that. But when they were starting
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: cloud Flare, I really should have jumped on that moment
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: or UM when my my buddy Ryan Graves, whom I
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: still chat with pretty frequently, UH was starting out uber
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: in beta with Travis and Garrett as another opportunity that
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: I definitely missed. UM I was in Ireland when this
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: year is a term sheep assigned. So there's such a
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: long laundry list of name dropped, name dropped, missed, missmissed.
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: But in terms of what I'm proud of UM, I'd
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: say far more. You know, I don't like Sophie's choice.
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: I don't like to cherry pick the certain investments to
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: just brag about them. But we've we've talked about someone
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: the call today, I'd rather kind of shine a light
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: look at my track record. Right there's there's a large
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: realized I r R that I'm very proud of. But
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: more on the opportunity of the companies that we more
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: recently act Preventive, which is a CRM for oncology patients
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: that helped them navigate through the most strenuous time of
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: their lives and by doing so, get better access to healthcare.
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: You know, we just wrote that check a couple of
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: months ago, but already it's becoming a company that I
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: couldn't be more excited about because if they execute the
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: way I think surely and Victor will, this has the
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: power to help so many people in you know, profound way,
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: not just in the Silicon Valley cliche way of this
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: could change the world, but this could actually, you know,
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: help people receive better care. UM. So so yeah, so
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm I'm proud of having been an early investor
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: in you know, the Caspers of the world. Certainly we're
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: all getting better sleep. There's no shame there. But I'm
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: I'm really excited now today and investing in financial inclusion
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: in the care economy and so on. M And let's
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: talk a little bit about impactful companies. Is there any
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: different when you're making a seed stage investment in a
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: potentially impactful company versus traditional startup investing. Well, pre seed
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: and seed investing UM isn't a science, and it's certainly
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: not a science that anyone has perfected. There are people
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: who are incredibly good at it because they have a
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: combination of luck and access. But if you're a discipline
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: investor in any such class. And I talked to my
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: friends who were in hedge funds and work for hedge
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: funds about you know, the ten bets that they take
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: a day, and I think that's a lot trickier than
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: what I do. Because our due diligence process, on average,
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: picks an entire quarter of a year. We're not making
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: that many investments each year. So even though it sounds
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: sort of fruity when you look at a white combinator
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: your demo day, why Com is, you know, the biggest
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: accelerator in Silicon Valley, and they produce over three D
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: companies three or four times a year. When you look
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: at the outsized valuations coming out of why Com, it's
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: easy to think that starting company is as simplest sort
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: of downloading a company in a box Excel and and
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: and running with it. But from where we sit, you know,
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: we're scorching the earth for really compelling ideas in areas
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: that have yet to converge. And we're looking for businesses
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: that may have never pitched a VC before. Maybe they're
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: not even seeking capital. Maybe it's it's a company that
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: you know, isn't so interested in raising a penny of
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: venture because they don't need to. They're profitable from day one.
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: Those are the companies that we find most exciting because
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: as former operators. We know how to appeal to them,
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: and then we also know how to work with them.
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: M hm, that's really interesting. Before I get to my
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: favorite question, let me just throw you a curveball. Tell
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: me a little bit about business school. The podcast you
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: hosted for quite a while, So Synchrony thanks Um came
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: to me a few years ago with a very compelling
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: and exciting opportunity to host a podcast with them that
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: allowed me a fortunate opportunity to travel the country. I
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: went to just under a dozen cities to meet with
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: founders who have persevered past their startup pace. And what
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: I loved about the concept of business school is that
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: the seasons that I hosted were really focused on founders
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: who didn't have access to BC capital. They put money
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: on credit cards or took out SBA loans or you
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: know as friends and family to give them starter capital,
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: and then they made their business work through trying times.
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: And when you passed a five year marks for any business,
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: I you know, I'm passing it right now for t
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: n B, there's a moment of reflection where you can say, wow,
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: I did it. You know it's it's incredibly difficult to
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: be a startup founder. More than fifty of companies fail
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: and probably for good reason. And so um, Yes, I
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: hosted Business School seasons two and three and potentially there
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: will be more seasons um and I'm very proud of
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: the fact that, you know, at one point we we
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: cracked the top twenty business podcasts, and people seem to
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: be really entertained um through these conversations with you know,
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: insightful founders who were vulnerable with me about you know,
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: what it was like to build their business. And I'd
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: like to think they were vulnerable because I have, you know,
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: a good amount of compassion for the experience of being
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: a founder, and also because I'm a New Yorker and
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: I just like to talk. You're also a founder, so
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: there's gonna be some you know, empathy that's genuine. You'r
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: you went through what they're going through exactly exactly, and
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: so um. You know, what you do, Barry is quite similar.
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: You're you host an exceptionally successful business podcast and you're
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: also an allocator. You know that it's it's interesting to
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: do both because you have I think that being an
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: investor is a lot like being a journalist. You know,
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: in both professions, you won't succeed unless you are confidently
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: curious and if you are having conversations to listen more
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: than you speak. Well, I'll let you in on a
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: little secret. Since it's so late in the podcast and
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: fewer people will be hearing this, the people I invite
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: on the show are essentially just conversations I want to have.
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: If other people come along and listen, that's fantastic, But honestly,
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: it's for an audience of one, namely me. The reason
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: I wanted to have you on is because I'm intrigued
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: by the world of venture and alternatives and impact. I
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: think it's safe to say that a lot of people
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: have been somewhat disappointed in the result of E s
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: G investing and impact investing that for it's captured a
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: lot more mind share than it has captured capital, although
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: we're seeing signs that's starting to shift. But then the
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: real question becomes, all right, so I'm investing less in
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: oil companies and more in other companies that just happened
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: to consume fossil fuels, what's the genuine impact of of
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: my E s G investing? It feels like it's sort
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: of diminimus, whereas what you do really feels like it
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: has a major impact for people who are interested in
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: having their capital make a positive difference. Thank you for
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: saying that, and I will return the compliment by saying
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: that I've really enjoyed getting to know you on our
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: Wonky Economists zooms um and I think that you're right.
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: I think that E s G investing, certainly in the
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: public markets, has had diminished returns historically because the definition
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: has been still bizarre and so all over the place.
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: And I've read incredible books from people like company Book Levine,
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: who helps coin the term Rockefeller Foundation originally can coin
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: the term you know, you read about lower case higher
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: are and iris plus measurement, and it's so hard to
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: have just a standardization of what it means to be
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: an impact investor, and so it can be the bother.
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: But we don't bother. Rather, we kind of come up
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: with our own subjective point of view of the world,
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: and we say, what is impact mean to us? Certainly
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: it means not investing in sin stocks, um, But then
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: those sin stocks have to begin somewhere. It has to
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: begin with an idea that somebody had once upon a time.
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: And so rather we are investing in the way the
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: world should look from our perspective. UM. And with that
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: in mind, it doesn't have to be impact like your
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: grandpa's dc UM. It can be impact for a modern
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: generation but simply thinks and behaves differently their votes with
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: their dollars. UM. You know, people often say, oh, well,
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: my E S G portfolios under performing, But then if
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: you dig into the specifics, are you investing in Tesla?
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: It's a pretty good year. Did you back beyond Meat
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: had a great year. And so when you kind of
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: redesign the public market not by a sleeve in um,
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: you know, a bank's version of a portfolio, but rather
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: by companies that you think are making demonstrable change in
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: the world, then you can walk away realizing, oh, had
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: I only invested in these companies that are purpose driven,
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: I would have had outside returns. And that's what we're
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: trying to deliver on at TMV. That's that's the promise,
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: really really very very intriguing. I know I only have
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: you for a few minutes, so let's jump to my
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: favorite questions that I asked all of our guests, starting
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: with tell us what you're streaming these days? Give us
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: your favorite Netflix, Amazon Prime or any podcasts that are
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: keeping you entertained during the pandemic. While my family has
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: been binging on on ft Wave on HBO Max, which
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: is the story of Big Waves surfer Barrett McNamara, who
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: is constantly surfing the world's largest waves. And I'm fascinated
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: by people who have a mission that's sort of bigger
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: than success or fame. Um. But they're driven by something
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: and part of that something is curiosity, and part of
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: it is insanity. And so not only is it visually
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: stunning to kind of watch these big Waves surfers in Portugal,
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: but it's also a mind trip, you know, what motivates
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: them to get out of bed every day and potentially
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: risk their lives doing something so dangerous and and so
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: nannas but also at the same time so brave and heroic.
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: So highly recommend um. I am um listening to too
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: many podcasts. I listened to I don't know, a stream
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: of things from I'm a Big You know carriswsher fan
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: as reclient fan, so they're both part of the New
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: York Times these days, Um, and of course your podcast,
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: Mary Well, well, thank you so much. Let's talk a
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: little bit about who your early mentors were and who
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: helped shape your career. It's gonna sound ungrateful, but I
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: don't think in like a post lene and definition of
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: the word, I've ever truly had a mentor or a sponsor. Now,
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: having said that, I've had people who have really looked
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: out for me and been incredibly gracious with their time
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: and capital, and so I would absolutely like to acknowledge
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: that first and foremost. You know, I think about how
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: generous Adam Grant has been with his time and his
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: investments for TMV and Fund one and Front two, and
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: he's the best selling author and worked in his highest
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: rated business professor. Um So, shout out to Adam if
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: he's listening, or back Comstock, the former vice chair of
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: che who has been instrumental in my career for about
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: a decade and a half now. Um and she's also,
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: um you know, really leaning into the t m V
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: portfolio and has become a patient of Parsley Health and
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: early investment of ours and and also an official advisor
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: to the business. Um So, people like Adam and besth
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: certainly come to mind. But I don't know. I just
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure mentors really exist outside of corporate America anymore.
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: And part of the reason why we started Transact Global
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: is to kind of foster the concept of the peer
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: mentor people who are going through the same thing as
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: you at the same time, and allowing that high mentality
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: with an abundance mentality to catalyze people to kind of
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: go further and faster. Let's talk about some of your
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: favorite books and what you might be reading right now. Okay,
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: so in the biz book UM World, the as I
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: know your your listeners are creating UM. I'm a big
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: fan of negotiation Genius. I took a crash course with
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: one of the authors, Max Bagamin, at the Kennedy School,
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: and it was illuminating. I mean, he's one of the
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: most captivating professors I've ever had the pleasure of hearing lecture.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: And this book has really helped me understand the concept
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: of the ZOPA, the zone of possible agreement and how
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: to really negotiate though UM. And then for Adam, whom
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: I just referenced UM, of all of his incredible books,
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: my favorite is given Take because I try to operate
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: UM with that approach in business. You know, give more
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: than you take and maybe in the short term you'll
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: feel depleted, but in the long term, you know, karma
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: pays off. But mostly very I read fiction. UM. I
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: think the most interesting people in the world, or at
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: least the most entertaining at dinner parties, are all avid
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: readers of fiction and history. So I recently reread, for instance,
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: all of my favorite short stories from college, from those
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: Dioskis in Gentile Creature to Drown by one Odeas um
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: Passing by Millah Larson, the Diamond, as Big as the
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: Risk that This Gerald. Those are some of my very
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: favorite stories of all time. And my retirement dream is
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: to write a book of short stories. M really really
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: quite intriguing. Are they all available in a single collection?
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: Or these just going back to your favorites and and
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: just plowing through them for fun? Those are just going
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: back to my favorites. UM. I try to reread Passing
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: every few years. It just somehow seems to be more
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: and more relevant if I get older. Uh and uh.
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: One ideas has become so incredibly famous. Um. The first
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: read Drown about twenty years ago. But it's his original
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: question of short stories that you know, brought in my
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: perspective of why it's important to think about a broader
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: definition of America, I guess. And yeah, now that's just
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: that that was just sort of off the top of
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: my head. Is a toil ring us few stories that
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: I really love. That's a that's a good collection. Um,
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: And we're down to our final two questions. What sort
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: of advice would you give to a recent college grad
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: who was interested in a career in either venture capital
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: or entrepreneurship. Venture capital or entrepreneurship. Uh well, I would say,
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: learned as early as possible how to trust your gut.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: So this could mean a myriad of things as an entrepreneur,
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: could mean under the halo effect of an institution university
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: or high school, or maybe having a comfortable day job,
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: tinker with ideas, get feedback on that idea, don't be
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: afraid of looking or sounding dumb, um, and build that
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: peer network that I described people who are rooting you
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: on um and are also insatiably curious about wonky things.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: And I would say that for venture capital, similar play
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: on the same theme. But you know, whether it's putting
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: small amounts of money into new concept block chain investing,
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: or whether it's meeting with entrepreneurs and saying maybe I
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: only have three thousand dollars saved up that I believe
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: in you enough to bet a month's rent in Brooklyn
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: on your concept if you'll have me as an investor.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: So play with your own money, because what it's really
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: chief teaching you in return is how to follow instincts
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: and to base Petter recognition off of your own judgment.
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: And if you do that early on, over time these
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: all become data points that you can point to, and
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: there are lessons that you can glean while not taking
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: the risk of portfolio management. So I guess the real
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: advice to your listeners is you know, more action, please,
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: really very very intriguing. And our final question, what do
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: you know about the world of venture investing today that
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: you wish you knew fifteen or twenty years ago When
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: you were first getting started. Twenty years ago, I was
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: a bit of a Pollyanna and I thought every wonderful
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: idea that simply is built by smart people and has
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: times the market correctly will work out. And I will
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: say that I'm slightly more jaded today because of the
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: capital structure that is systematically allowing the biggest firms in
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: the world to kind of eat up the generous portion
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: of what's called the lp PI, which leaves less capital
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: available through the young, upstart VC firms. And of course
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: I'm biased because I run one that are taking outside
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: risk on those non obvious ideas that we referenced. And
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: so what I wish for the future is that institutional
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: capital kind of reprioritizes what it's looking for. And in
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: addition to having a bottom line of reliable and you know,
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: demonstrable return on any given investment, there are new standards
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: put into place saying we want to make sure that
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: a portion of our portfolio goes to diverse managers because
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: in turn, we recognize that they are three times more
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: likely to invest in diverse founders. Or we believe an
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: impact investing can be broader than the s G e
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: s G definition of a decade ago. So we're coming
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: up with our own way to measure what sustainability or
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: what impact means to us. And if they go through
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: those exercises, which I know is hard because certainly I'm
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: not trying to add work to anyone's plate, I do
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: think that the results will more than make up for it.
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: Quite intriguing. Thank you so Ria for being so generous
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: with your time we have been speaking with Soriah door Abi,
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: who is the co founder and general partner at t
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: MV Investment. If you enjoy this conversation, we'll be sure
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: and check out any of the prior three and seventy
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: six conversations we've had before. You can find those at
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: iTunes or Spotify or wherever you buy your favorite podcasts.
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: We love your comments, feedback and suggestions right to us
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: at m IB podcast at Bloomberg dot net. You can
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: sign up for my daily reads at Hults dot com.
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: Check out my weekly column at Bloomberg dot com slash Opinion.
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: Follow me on Twitter at rid Halts. I would be
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: remiss if I did not thank the crack team that
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: helps me put these conversations together each week. Tim Harrow
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: is my audio engineer, Paris Wold is my producer. Atika
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: val Bron is our project manager. Michael Batnick is my
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: head of research. I'm Barry Rihults. You've been listening to
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio.