It’s been a fantastic three years, but today is my last day at Ridge Ventures. Although I’ll no longer be an investor on the investment committee, I will be transferring to an advisor role – including remaining on the boards of Samasource and Rafay Systems, which I led the Series A investments in last year.
I am eternally grateful to Alex, Brendan, Pat, Gil and the rest of the team for giving me my first break into venture — entrusting me to make some deals, take board seats and collaborate with the rest of the team on diligence for their deals. I’ve learned a lot from some amazing people who I owe a big debt of gratitude to.
So what will I be doing next? Well, last month was my 20th year in the tech industry and next month I’ll begin my 40th trip around the sun (that means I’m turning 39, not the big four-oh just yet!). I’ve taken some time to think about what I want from the next 20 years of my career and I realized I love being a founder and I love being a VC. I’ve also spent a lot of time thinking about what venture capital really means to me and the areas of investment I’m most excited about.
The timing isn’t optimal but I’m leaving to explore raising my own seed fund – an endeavor which combines my two passions of founding and investing. I honestly don’t know how this is going to pan out, but I’m lucky enough to be in a position where I’m able to give it a shot and see. I’ve learned a lot about what excites me the most in terms of investing and I’ll be talking more about my thesis in due course.
With more time on my hands I’m going to focus on helping founders raise money, especially seed stage/first money in.
I want to reiterate my gratitude to Alex and the rest of the team and look forward to hopefully doing some future deals together with Ridge.