Joining Innovation Endeavors as a Partner
Partnering with the next generation of founders pushing the boundaries of computing and its applications
The magic of technology startups was something I was fortunate enough to be exposed to from a young age. For about as long as I can remember, I was regaled with tales from my dad about the early days of Silicon Valley, the impact of emerging technology on the world, and the trials, tribulations, and joys of building a tech startup.
Some of my most notable memories from this time include reading Scientific American and Nature with him while we discussed exciting developments in science and technology, joining brainstorming sessions and practice pitches when he’d have founders he was advising over at our house, and learning about the culture he built at his former company.
These conversations and this early exposure to startups left an indelible mark on me, and in many ways, was the guiding through-line for most of the last decade of my life. I was the weird kid reading Venture Deals and Term Sheet in college. While I was at Google, I couldn’t stop reading about startups. And in the midst of a job search, thinking I was going to go work at a startup, I ended up taking a job in venture capital on somewhat of a whim. I loved learning about technology, and I was excited by the premise of a job where I got to work with early stage startups every day, potentially recreating some of those magic moments with my dad from my childhood.
After four years in venture, it’s turned out to be everything I could have possibly hoped for, and I couldn’t be more excited to officially continue my journey as a Partner at Innovation Endeavors.
Investing at the frontiers of computing
I strongly believe that computing is one of the single most important factors that drives humanity forward. From the abacus and the “Adding Machine” to the semiconductor and neural networks, advances in computing are largely responsible for the world we live in today.
Yet, despite centuries of progress, in many respects computing as a field is still early, and this might be the most exciting time to ever invest in it. The pace of progress in areas like cloud infrastructure, artificial intelligence, virtualization, databases, systems, and more is unbelievable.
The impact of these advances will be far-reaching, touching essentially every industry. For me, this is part of the magic of investing in tools for developers and other types of “builders” (designers, architects, engineers, etc.); building something that enables thousands of others to build even more feels so high-leverage, and as a result, high impact. I got my first taste of this dynamic working on a developer platform at Google, and I find it deeply gratifying to see the wide range of industries, verticals, and application areas that are served by many of the infrastructure companies I work with now.
I’ve spent a lot of my last few years primarily focused on computing infrastructure, looking heavily at areas like data engineering, cloud infrastructure, and artificial intelligence, investing in companies like Earthly, Panther, and Tromzo. I’m excited to continue spending time in these areas, and am especially interested in the following themes right now:
- Serverless software engineering platforms — Software engineering tools that focus on a specific, vertical category of engineering workload (e.g., data engineering, data science, CI/Build, frontend, etc.) and design the end-to-end developer experience to take full advantage of the cloud.
- Distributed computing — Many modern applications are becoming increasingly complex distributed systems, incorporating compute and storage across the client, the edge, and the cloud, split across many services. Better tools are needed to abstract and manage this.
- Data systems — Data engineering and data science still feel a decade behind software engineering in many respects, yet essentially all applications are becoming data and AI driven.
- Next Generation Design and Engineering Tools — Companies utilizing advances in computation to rethink how people responsible for building complex systems (designers, architects, electrical engineers, etc.) do their work.
More broadly, I am excited to work with highly technical teams pushing the frontier of what is possible across computer science systems and algorithms broadly, as well as teams building applications uniquely differentiated by data, compute, or AI.
A research-driven, collaborative approach to investing
Over the last four years I’ve learned what type of investor I would like to be, and I’m fortunate to work at a firm highly aligned with my investing philosophy.
I like being research driven. I typically don’t make an investment in an area until I have spent months researching that space such that I hopefully understand it as well as anyone else. I not only find this process of learning to be deeply enjoyable — by far the best moments in my job are when I spend an hour or two going down some technology rabbit hole with a brilliant person in that field — but this is also what allows me to actually be a meaningful partner to founders.
I like working with teams early. My favorite times in the startup journey are the early days of building the first product and closing the first few customers, when there isn’t much more than an idea and hundreds of risks and unknowns to try to figure out. Figuring out how to make a startup work is, to me, one of the most interesting puzzles in the world.
I like working in a small, tight-knit, collaborative environment. Many venture firms operate somewhat like fiefdoms. It’s so much more joyous to work with other highly technical people who love to learn, have a passion for the impact of technology, and genuinely enjoy working as a team to help companies navigate the ups and downs of trying to build something incredible.
I didn’t realize how lucky I was to land at a firm so aligned with these values when I first started in venture four years ago, and I couldn’t be more excited to continue to build out these cultural pillars at Innovation Endeavors. More broadly, I’m deeply thankful to both the team at Innovation Endeavors as well to all of the founders I’ve worked with thus far, who also took a bet on me.
