Getting to know me
Hello, my name is Barry Goldsmith and I’m addicted to learning about new technologies, companies, business models, and people. I’ll get to more interesting thoughts and material eventually, but if you’ll permit I want to take a few moments to share a little of my background and my motivations for writing.
Born and raised in Nashville, TN, my first work experience came as an 18-year old in the meat/seafood department at my local Kroger — that summer I learned more about life than I had in all my previous years (and I came away with a few good stories as well). I then moved to DC to attend Georgetown University to study finance, and after my freshman year I returned to Nashville for the summer and began my journey in entrepreneurship as an intern at the Nashville Entrepreneur Center (EC for short). At the time the Nashville entrepreneurial community had really just started to blossom and the EC was at the epicenter. Saying my time at the EC was life-changing would be an understatement; I met so many incredible people and I was instantly hooked to the feeling of being surrounded by smart, passionate people building solutions to real problems — the energy of it all was indescribable.
I returned to Georgetown and immediately sought out the Director of the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative and I spent the next 2.5 years as his assistant, working on everything from helping students turn their ideas into businesses to raising funds for the Initiative to connecting those student entrepreneurs to the greater DC entrepreneurial and investment community (there was a running joke that I secretly lived in the Director’s office, which wasn’t too far from the truth considering I had my own key to his office for late-night and weekend usage). As a junior I decided not to pursue the traditional investment banking or consulting summer internships (ironic, as you’ll come to see) in favor of an elusive opportunity in venture capital. I was very, very fortunate enough to earn such an opportunity at Blu Venture Investors, where I evaluated and performed due diligence on countless companies across technology — from cybersecurity (Blu’s specialty) to enterprise software to e-commerce and even to one maker of blender-free frozen smoothies. It was at Blu that I realized my aforementioned addiction, but at the same time I saw that I lacked the real-world experience of my more senior team members. In search of that experience, I accepted an offer at a bulge bracket investment bank, and after graduating in 3.5 years and spending an additional 6 months at Blu I moved to New York to become an investment banker (like I said, ironic).
So now I’m here, writing this blog, because — quite simply — I miss being surrounded by passionate entrepreneurs building businesses and solving real problems. And while I hunt for opportunities in venture capital, I hope to satiate my addiction by sharing some of my thoughts here.
