One of the commitments I made to myself for Sabbatical was to invest time to craft a personal venture investment thesis.
As a class immigrant, I have a complex relationship with money. I’m not money motivated as a means of keeping score or assessing value, but I am deeply motivated to experience the safety and opportunity that wealth supports. For most of my working life I have been an earner [vs. owner] and like most earners, I focused on a savings strategy as my primary investment focus. Specifically minimizing debt and saving for college and retirement. Feeling financially safe has been a big part of my healing process.
It has only been recently that I’ve been in an [admittedly privileged] position to think about broadening out my investment focus to include venture. In the beginning, I struggled to understand my what/why/how and I felt overwhelmed by the entire topic. I understood that I was looking for more than a financial return, but I struggled to define a framework that I felt comfortable with.
As I continued my learning journey on this topic I realized that impact investing is a big part of my Q3 life goals. Like you, I want my life to have an impact that reaches far past my own lifespan. This is what most mean when they say they want to change the world. To leave the world better than you found it in some important and deeply personal way.
Q3 life goals are definitionally not short term and I’m at the very beginning of my journey. It is important to me to document my beginners mindset.
I have defined two broad focus areas that speak to my broader passion of expanding opportunity equity.
What are industries and sectors I believe need innovation acceleration
What are funds that I admire and believe I can learn from
I like having this type of framework as it’s both bounded and expansive. It keeps me focused on the idea that I want to be part of creating the future while having flexibility for discovery and adjacencies I can’t imagine today.
Acrew Capital
My first small step was with Acrew Capital.
I’m a fan of both Thereisa Gouw and Mark Kraynak and I believe their expertise in security is best in class. You can’t help but see their forward facing values in how they have created their team, invited investors and aligned their mission. They were also the first to make available to me the ability to invest a relatively small amount. This was a great way to get familiar with the process itself, including the concept of being an accredited investor. This hurdle is not trivial, but significantly more available to earners in high wage markets as the earned income thresholds are more aligned.
Acadian Ventures
My next step investing was with Acadian Ventures.
Their focus on HR and Worktech speaks to my expertise and passion. I have almost two decades of experience with both Jason and Thomas, both smart, thoughtful, curious and kind. Values that I admire and attempt to develop in myself.
I knew that working with them I would learn a lot, but the recent LP meeting exceeded all expectations. The momentum, global reach and diverse voices in their portfolio, give me a lot of optimism and I love being in the thick of these topics.
The experience was more like a retreat with friends; authentic and vulnerable conversations of smart people eager to help each other. This gives me joy.
Portfolia
I met Trish when I was at Juvo, and I knew right away I wanted to keep an eye on Portfolia. Their focus on a huge blind spot in tech innovation– women’s health — is one that I am obviously hoping to see improved in my lifetime. I was excited to see this post alerting me of a investing opportunity and I immediately jumped on board.
Operator Collective
I was introduced to Mallun of Operator Collective thanks to Maria and I immediately knew that I wanted to be part of this community. You can’t help but see how the portfolio benefits from the deep experience of the investors. The alignment of purpose, experience with capital is exactly the kind of innovation that inspires me. I see this as a great model that focuses on abundance while actively combatting structural opportunity barriers. I look forward to being a LP here at some point. [Quick referral for all of my 40+ lady friends Midi Health]
Lessons I’ve learned… so far
While I’m still early in my journey, I’ve learned that each step has given me more than it’s asked. For me these are not just financial investments but human ones. It’s the people I have met and the ideas I’ve been exposed to that are helping expand my own thinking and experience. What I’m discovering is that the ecosystem of investors is a renewable resource. Having the opportunity to connect with well informed, curious, smart people helps me thrive.
It is important to me that these funds are driven by people who are not only creating financial value but are eager to support founders through the hard times. Each of these funds care about diversity not as lip service, but with the clarity of purpose. These funds believe, as I do, that for innovation to thrive we need to expand participation.
It took me a bit too long to get started on this journey (see the above healing note). I’m grateful for friends and peers who shared their experiences and helped me find some smaller steps to get started. I hope this encourages you to think about how you can add investing to your own learning and wealth creation journey.
While there are a lot of different things you can do to invest today – from wefunder campaigns to Limited Partner (LP) investments, it is important to remember that venture is definitionally risky and can be a long game. Having clarity on how you measure success and a broad understanding on how you want to engage, matters.
Final Thoughts
Of course I’m just at the beginning of my journey. There are so many things I don’t know and amazing people I’ve yet to meet. That is the most energizing part of this journey for me. I am at step zero of what will be a very impactful [life] Q3.
There really are a few big ideas embedded in this post that apply to more than investing. I want to break those out so they are not lost along the way.
Financial Wellbeing – For those who are just starting out – having a plan for financial wellbeing is step one. I recommend this book if you want a good get started read.
Life Goals – Good to think of your life in chapters and set goals to help you create your future.
Learning Journey – Learning journeys are important and they can take you places you don’t anticipate if you expand your curiosity and keep asking deeper questions.
Purpose – When you align your actions with your purpose everything works better.
Beginnings matter – starting is hard. Being thoughtful and intentional in how you start can help you accelerate quickly later.
As ever I’m grateful to know you and wishing you abundance in your own life goals.
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