Networks
TLDR — I’m leaving Anthemis Group
I’m all about networks. Though it took me a while to realise their importance and how to foster them. In fact, the first 5 years of my career probably felt like I was a character in the hangover. I was knocked down, rebounded, over and over again and somehow ended up working on interesting projects and learning a boat-load.
Having built strong networks by accident early on, towards the end of my 20s and in my early 30s I was purposeful and built a strong network through London Business School and then Yahoo — having now to assure younger people that it was once cool to work for Yahoo!
Following that period I extended my network building companies, I built networks with other founders and then investors. After initially pitching VCs for 5 or so years, I became one with a bit of luck and opportunity from the good folks at Anthemis. The last five years have been great, I’ve invested in some great companies, leveraged my experience as a recovering entrepreneur to empathise and help founders build great companies, and most recently Anthemis gave me the opportunity to invest in great investors through my work in fund investing.
The last year was a challenging one, where capital flowed fast and free in 2021, 2022 was a return to fundamentals and as a result, Anthemis has decided that the fund-of-funds strategy that I was building was not part of the core of the business. As a result of this decision, I’ve left a place I thought I would spend the rest of my career.
I have to admit, this decision was a difficult one for me to process and was not the way I thought my time at Anthemis would end, but it’s for the best for the Anthemis group and for me personally. I’ve looked back at the five years I spent at Anthemis as the ultimate network builder. I’ve had the pleasure of working with some excellent founders, I’ve spent time in the Swiss alps with some exciting entrepreneurs, and I’ve learnt more about financial services than I could have imagined.
So to all my Anthemis colleagues, the ones who left on their own terms and the ones who didn’t. The ones who are still there and the ones who were never employed by the group but were definitely key to its success, all I can say is thank you. I treasure the network I’ve gained from my years there.
Now it’s time to build on that network. I’ll leave how I’m planning to do that for another blog post. Don’t worry though, I promise, you won’t have to wait long.
