My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fan-Tas-Tic Path Towards Being a VC

“I fantasized about this back in Chicago
Mercy, mercy me, that Murcielago
That’s me, the first year that I blow
How you say broke in Spanish? Me no hablo
Me drown sorrow in that Diablo
Me found bravery in my bravado” — K.O.W.

There is a bit of bravery in the story of going from working at a bank inside of a grocery store to running a venture fund, complete with 20 years of madness in between. When I graduated with a Poetry/Literature undergraduate degree from Texas A&M in Commerce, Texas (formerly East Texas State University). I didn’t know where I wanted to be then, but I did know that I wanted to tell stories.

After being unable to find a job as a paid poet, despite the visions of Saul Williams and Beau Sia in my head, I joined Wells Fargo (then First Interstate Bank) with two of my fraternity brothers, right next to the frozen foods aisle, as banks tested out this new idea of in-store banking. No, literally, we were in the store! I enjoyed the experience as I understood early on that selling was better with storytelling, and it served me well. I understood that stories connect us all, from religion, to nationalism, to family genealogy.

A few months later, restlessness and having the first taste of what it meant to be an entrepreneurial VC (i.e.: the risk taking thrill) I did the second riskiest thing in my life — I threw a dart at a map to determine where I would move for the new year of 1998. It landed on Las Vegas. Debauchery here I come!

I landed in Las Vegas in the summer of 1998 and I still remember my cassette tape of Boogie Down Productions melting in the car. There I began to delve into the management part of my professional experience.

After a year in Las Vegas, I was able to move into Corporate Banking with Wells Fargo, primarily in Los Angeles but also out of Chicago and San Francisco — giving me my first taste of tech in the pre-dotcom boom.

In the mid 2000’s after finishing my MBA degree (Pepperdine) and starting my PhD degree in Geopolitical Economics (Claremont Graduate University), I joined the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) focusing on people who had more money than I’ve ever seen in my life, even more than my cousins who sold certain things in the neighborhood so well they would have made great stock brokers. I cite meeting Brook Byers in his home as one of my highlights, sitting in his home in Antherton and realizing there are only a few things that separate me from him. Thanks Acumen Fund for the trip!

I worked with UBS in Beverly Hills and thus began the building of my network that would become my net worth.

After two years at UBS, I became the Chief Economist of a fund called TRW. It was here where I began my love affair with tech, startups, and investing.

Throughout the years then:

• I joined the advisory board of Xtopoly (acquired by Vincit),
• I joined with a co-founder to start rookielook (startup failed but had an awesome business plan…to me)
• Became the equity partner & COO of Waraire Boswell Fashion House + Boswell (sold US based clothes in China and partnered with McDonalds)
• Became equity partner & interim CEO of ILTG Media (ran sites such as www.ilikethisgrape.com and got investment from WineDirect)
• Joined the board of Voter.xyz (acquired by Brigade)

What is not mentioned is the stints of varied disagreements with my not so risky educator wife and my side jobs at places like Zumiez during the early start up founder days (as I quit my 6-figure banking job), thus the pic of this post. These experiences and more allowed me to have the skills to join the University of California as the Accelerator Director in Riverside, California. I enjoyed this because UCR is 40 percent Latino and had some of the highest success rates of African Americans. I thought, emphasis on thought, this would be ideal because of the need for Diversity & Inclusion in tech. I also loved the focus of agtech, cleantech, and health.

In the short two years I was there, working for full time but being paid for less than part time, we made Riverside the #4 place for minorities to be Entrepreneurs, behind only Atlanta. I was also awarded the 2017 Innovator of the Year from the mayor of the city. We brought VCs and TechStars startup week to The Inland Empire and made the regions first true venture fund — the Highlander Venture Fund. I also got a chance to serve on boards of great startups such as

•Mista Pat — the new age Mr. Rogers Neighborhood

•FarmSense — creating new ways of protecting our foods

•KYC Hospitality — lead by the awesome Dina Yuen focusing on disrupting hospitality

•KIGT — transforming 100 years of human habit in transportation

In June of 2018, I joined the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) focusing exclusively on cleantech — energy & transportation.

But prior to that in May of 2018 I was diagnosed with a rare genetic disease called FSGS (Focal Segmental Glomerulo Sclerosis) that ravaged my kidneys. Most people remember this disease as the same one that halted NBA star Alonzo Mourning’s career. It’s also a disease that we later found out that impacted a number of my cousins, but I was the only one to get a biopsy to determine the disease. Although I worked at UCR, because of the way my contract was structured with the university, I was not able to get medical benefits (which is something many entrepreneurs feel as healthcare becomes an elephant in the room) but thankful for my wife’s benefits. Even throughout the pain and multiple surgeries, I still managed to produce a city and county pitch competition in Riverside and was awarded the City of Riverside Innovation Honoree for the year.

Now I do dialysis for 10 hours at a time 7 days a week and often think about the potential of death that could become me. In addition, my once impeccable memory for data has been decimated and often confusion and lethargy are some of the unfortunate symptoms of the genetic disease. While many in California wait for years for a kidney transplant, I’m hopeful my time ends soon with the kindness of another. Even with the disease, the entire experience has given me a heightened view about life and purpose and the releasing of all fear. Death is a gift we all will open.

This type luck and thinking gives me fearlessness and a sense of purpose that helps me to be a pretty good VC, along with the aforementioned attitude on talking risks and bets on great founders. My academic and professional experiences help a bit as well, but there is nothing like an investor who has also been a founder.

In 2021 I left LACi to start my own fund of funds called Include Ventures, a $250M targeted fund dedicated to investing in those often not included in the opportunity of wealth building in tech. We made a number of fund and founder investments over the last year with my staff of 6 and my partners Keith Spears and Bahiyah Robinson.

In late 2022, I was tapped to lead the climate x workforce program at JFF as Managing Director of Climate Innovations for the 40 year old non profit.

My path was not filled with internships at firms, or Stanford or Harvard, or family members, or multi billion dollar exits- it’s filled with fearlessness, risk, luck, the hustle in my veins from my cousins in the dope game, and purpose…oh and a few good theme songs along the way.

UPDATE: While I still do not have a donor, I no longer have to do dialysis 12 hours a day (PD) but rather 4 hours a day 3 times a week (HD). Lastly, I don’t think I mentioned my theme song — ”Reborn" by KidsSeeGhosts — go take a listen.

PRAISE REPORT: thanks to my fraternity brother Rob & his wife Emilee McGowan, my kidney transplant was performed January 11, 2023 — so I am truly reborn!