Joshua Reeves: Investing in the Mission

One thing I also love to talk about is kind of the approach to fundraising. For us, fundraising has never been about capital, it's about people. And if you think about it from that perspective, you can almost apply the same lens you do to fundraising as you do to hiring. So for us, when we hire someone, it's about their values, their motivation, and their skill set. When we fundraise, it's the same idea. This person is now going to become a part of your community. They're going to be an ambassador for your business. They're going to represent you in an external context. And so for us, we think about it as very analogous. And these are, again, some amazing folks that we're proud to have involved. These folks didn't invest because of the desire to simply make a 10x, 50x, 100x return on their investment. They invested because they really cared about the mission. And this is one thing that makes Silicon Valley really special. All of you are a part of this community. It's not a zero-sum game. That's what makes, in my opinion, Silicon Valley really tick. This idea that there is a camaraderie amongst entrepreneurs where you want to help each other out. And if you care about the mission, you share values with the founder, then by all means you want to support that individual.