Support

Posted on January 4, 2023. Filed under: Uncategorized |

The nature of my work at Pace is rooted in support. When I invest in a company, I take the responsibility to serve and support extremely seriously. In many ways I get paid (in equity) to hold space for people when they need it. Of course there are many other planes of service that are more tactical, strategic, and applied, but part of what makes me a good investor and board member is my ability to listen very intentionally, understand the moment a founder or company is in, and hold the space for us to collectively process it (and ultimately make some decisions). At Pace, we very intentionally limit the number of investments we make, so we can be sure we have the capacity to do this kind of time-intensive and sometimes emotionally-intensive work.

Lately I have had a number of friends and family members happen upon dynamic and challenging life moments. I’m not sure I was aware of this in the process, but over the course of the last 10 or so years, I have pretty clearly reduced the number of personal relationships I try to maintain. At the heart of this phenomena, I believe, is the same principle of being sure I have the capacity to fully show up for my friends and family when they need support.

As we enter a likely recession, try to emerge from a traumatic pandemic, search for life partners, grow our families, continue to consume an ever growing amount of toxic information, and more simply put…live in today’s world, support can be the difference between sinking and swimming. It’s not as sexy as big checks and high prices in venture or big parties and high society in personal life, but it’s what I believe is important and perhaps a non-intuitive dimension in which to strive for excellence.