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

taking big risks

23 Jul 2023 · 0 min

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0:29

In this brief monologue, the speaker recounts a pivotal career decision: becoming the sole member of an extended family to work outside the family-owned company, choosing to join the startup Foundry. The speaker describes this move as the best decision of their life, highlighting the inherent risk and the supportive environment that made it possible. They further reflect on how this early-stage founder experience has cultivated a deep level of founder empathy, distinguishing them from investors who lack firsthand founder experience, and how observing founders at the early stages taught them valuable lessons.

That support must have been really nice though, because I'm sure that in that position it would have— it like, I'm sure it felt like a big risk for you. Well, I was the one person in the extended family that had a job outside this company, right? So there was a little bit of risk management there. But I mean, that was the best decision of my life, and I ended up at Foundry, and sort of the rest is history. But I think that was really interesting. And then I think the other thing is that like, having lived it, especially at the early stages, I just have a different level of founder empathy than most investors who have not themselves been founders. And I just learned a lot watching how they did it.