Purpose-Built–with Passion

You're now a venture capitalist. What are some of the biggest changes that you're seeing that are coming our way in how we live, work, or play?

Oh my gosh, there's so many exciting things. I think for me, venture capital, it makes so much sense for me and my career at this stage. I mean, I spent eight years at IBM as an engineer. I spent almost 10 years running TaskRabbit. And then when I sold TaskRabbit, I realized that I put my head down in one business, in one technology for almost a decade. And I sort of miss that engineering side of me that was able to stay at the forefront of what was happening in the world. And so now at venture capital, I get to see new technologies everyday, new pitches everyday. And there's so much happening. Things in AI, in VR, in automated driving. We saw a company the other day that's creating these personalized autonomous vehicles to take you grocery shopping and back, just around town. I mean it's really amazing technology projects. And so that's my favorite part of my job now.

So how do you spot the companies or the leadership teams that you think will succeed in bringing about these changes?

Well, because we invest so early, it's hard to say if a certain company or business is going to be THE business at the earliest stage that's going to make it to, you know, a billion dollars and beyond. So then it really becomes about the team. So that's when I really go back to is this team, is this founder purpose-built for this particular opportunity? Do they have the backgroud? Do they have the experience? Do they have the passion that's really going to drive this idea into something that's bigger, into something that really is, you know, an opportunity, a movement, something massive.