Growing up, what were some of the earliest lessons you were taught about money? Was money something that was openly discussed at home?
Money wasn’t openly discussed in my home. What I absorbed were more implicit values; simplicity, intentionality, and a deep appreciation for what you have. We didn’t go out to eat much. Instead, my mom hosted and cooked, and I always saw that as beautiful, not as a financial constraint. 

Both of my parents demonstrated incredible work ethic and drive in different ways. My mom worked at Safeway in corporate for 35 years. She showed me the power of sticking with the work, even if you don’t love it. Things have not always been a straight line for me in business, and her perseverance is one of the reasons I’ve dug in when others would have quit.

My father is a musician, and a natural salesman. I remember him telling me stories of selling wine to restaurants around the bay area in the 1970’s just as Napa was exploding. He would write songs about the wine with the best gross margins, show up to a restaurant, and ask the owner if he could “sing them this wine.” He sold A LOT of wine through music. He later became a financial advisor, and his quarterly updates read more like poems than memos. He taught me that creativity has a place in everything, even finance, and to always own a piece of what you build. 

You’ve built your career as a VC Founder—what initially drew you to the VC space, and what has kept you in it?

I’ve always been an entrepreneur. When my second grade teacher asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up, I said “the boss.” That said, I always thought I would go into the arts and run a gallery. I studied Art History and Cultural Studies in Montreal during the peak indie era, 2005-2009. I had absolutely no concept of what a startup was, or what venture capital was.

I graduated into the teeth of the global financial crisis, and there were no jobs, let alone art jobs. I carved my own path in LA consulting for companies on social media strategy, drafting off of what I’d learned from working at the lululemon flagship store. It became very clear to me that I wanted to start a company, and I thought I needed to get an MBA to “learn business,” but it didn’t make sense to me to go into $100k of debt if I was going to be an entrepreneur.

The first time I heard about venture capital, it completely reframed how I thought about money and knowledge. The idea that someone would invest money into a founder’s idea and then help them build the business blew my mind. It was like the inverse of business school, and I knew I wanted to be part of it. I took a job at an accelerator program, made my first 20 investments, and was hooked. Soon after, I moved to San Francisco, and never left the industry. That was 2014.

What’s kept me in venture is two things: people and impact. I get to work with incredibly ambitious, curious, and unconventional thinkers every day—that kind of environment is endlessly energizing, especially for an intellectually voracious, 99% extrovert like me. And, there’s nothing quite like telling a founder—someone putting everything on the line—that you believe in them and are backing them with their first $1-2 million of capital. Being part of that moment, and helping unlock someone’s potential, someone’s dream, is a privilege, an honor, and my life’s work.