Paige Finn DohertyFounding Partner, Behind Genius · Founding Partner at Behind Genius Ventures

How has Screendoor evolved since Screendoor Partners Principal Wes Panek joined the team?

8 Mar 2023 · 1 min

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In this interview excerpt, Screendoor Partners Principal Wes Panek discusses the evolution of Screen Door since his first day. He emphasizes the firm’s dual ambition: achieving strong financial returns while fulfilling a societal mandate, positioning Screen Door as an economic vehicle with a winning strategy first and a social purpose second. Panek explains that the firm adopts a deliberate, measured scaling approach—moving quickly but ensuring they do not overextend—so they can meaningfully and durably support the general partners (GPs) they back. He notes that since joining, he has engaged with roughly 550 funds, focusing on maintaining consistent, high-quality backing for these GPs.

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Can you talk a bit about how Screen Door has evolved since you joined on day one?
Absolutely. It's been a wild and lovely ride. I think I will say from day one, and this remains true now in a way that really hasn't changed much, we have pretty big ambitions in terms of the level of scale we think is there to do this work, both from a returns perspective and from a sort of societal perspective. So we think about Screen Door as an economic vehicle. That is like a winning strategy first and foremost with a societal mandate. That said, I think we're very intentional and deliberate about not wanting to bite off more than we can chew and kind of slowly at the right pace, moving quickly, but making sure that we are able to support a set of GPs we're backing meaningfully, durably. And so what that has meant in the interim or since day one is we have really thought about amidst something like 550 funds, I think is what I've talked to since I joined, Mm-hmm. making sure that we are at a consistent clip backing them.