That time I walked in on @jackconte who just happened to be playing piano, of course. Amazing to see how much @Patreon has grown over the years since that 1st check, my friend. Congrats to you and your team and there's still SO much more to be done to bring on the #2ndRenaissance
Recently reminded of this.. back in June 2012, I was helping a variety of creators run kickstarter campaigns (publish books, merch, etc) and I realized there needed to be a platform for RECURRING revenue and mocked this up feat. the great @Zachanner
Look familiar? I spent 6 mos begging every talented dev I knew to build and found a patronage platform for creators so I could led a seed investment in it (I wasn't married to the name, lol). Then kismet happened....
I got an intro in Jan 2013 to @jackconte + @samyamiam
who had first-hand experience with the problem + built an MVP. Fastest yes I've ever made.. and the largest investment I'd ever written. Now they've paid out $2B+ to creators and are a Billion dollar company themselves...
But I never would've been in that mindset if I hadn't spent time with friends who were active creators, webcomic artists, to be exact. It's one professional example of why I've been so lucky to never been pigeonholed to one physical location or community...
The job of the investor is to always be learning. Look at the diversity of VC teams, the diversity of their experiences, the diversity of their geographies, etc... + you'll see the story of missed opportunities b/c we can never fully understand our blindspots, but
we must work every day to push ourselves to understand more, learn more, be uncomfortable more... to that end, one of my favorite hiring questions is around love / experience of travel. I love people who have travelled extensively, lived abroad, or are immigrants themselves
because their iron, sharpened by different experiences and acclimation to the unknown, sharpens my iron -- and everyone else's iron -- best. ⚔️
Needless to say, I'm still learning a lot as an investor and recognizing this FEELING and then helping coach others to see it (and getting them the reps - key! - to see enough deals to know the feeling) is where I'll make my professional legacy.
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