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

Jenny Lefcourt Investing In Discord with Greylock Capital #shorts #venturecapital

7 Aug 2022 · 1 min

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In this brief interview, the speaker contrasts angel investing with full‑time venture capital work, highlighting how diligence and decision‑making differ dramatically. As an angel, she followed lead investors and made small, intuition‑driven bets, exemplified by her involvement in the Studio 9+ incubator that housed Hammer and Chisel (later rebranded as Discord). The incubator held pro‑rata rights in Discord’s Series A but lacked capital, prompting her to step in and invest alongside Greylock, which led the round. This anecdote illustrates the shift in her investment philosophy from casual, low‑effort angel deals to the more rigorous, data‑driven approach required of a VC.

Chapters

How you've shifted going from angel investing and advising to now full-time venture investing. How your investment philosophy has shifted is one of the things I'm most curious about.
Angel investing and venture investing, or investing as a VC, are night and day. As an angel, I either was following somebody else who was leading, or it was a small enough, like, throw-in. Oh, I, you know, I love this person, or I love this idea. The amount of diligence I did was, was pretty small. I was an investor in an incubator called Studio 9+, and Hammer and Chisel was incubated there, which is now Discord. And because Discord, they had pro rata rights in Discord's A, but they didn't have money, they're like, hey, if anyone wants, you can throw in to Discord. And I was like, yeah, I'll throw into Discord. Greylock was leading, and I, I knew the numbers were up into the right