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

the power of human connection

7 Apr 2023 · 1 min

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In this brief dialogue, two speakers reflect on the emotional challenges of raising a first venture fund, describing moments of vulnerability such as crying in the shower. They highlight how connecting with other managers, limited partners, or pre‑seed founders creates a powerful sense of empathy—what they term "human capital"—that mirrors the financial capital they manage. By sharing these common, painful experiences, they experience a metaphorical "exhale," a release of baggage that brings freedom and deeper relational trust. The conversation underscores that authentic human connection is a critical, often overlooked, component of successful investing and partnership building.

Chapters

I remember talking about like how when we were raising our first fund, I definitely had days where I was just like on the floor crying in the shower and people were just like, oh my God, amazing, me too.
Well, don't you feel like when you got to that, the chance to talk to another manager or LP or founder, I mean, God, you know what's cool is that like every founder that you work with at the pre-seed stage, They have those shower moments and they wanna work with you because you have the empathy. You have been there. Yeah. You know what it's like to be them. They want to work with you because you can be a human, human capital as much as financial capital. But when you find those commonalities, I always feel like there's this giant exhale. And then like with that exhale, that's kind of what I mean with like the freedom. Yeah. It's like when you exhale, it's like you unload, you unload the baggage.