In this video, Paige Finn Doherty, a young emerging venture capital manager, shares her journey and the principles that have propelled her rapid success. She explains her two‑fold mission: educating the next generation of venture investors and increasing capital flow to women founders. Her "founder‑first" strategy emphasizes execution‑focused storytelling and mission‑driven founders from diverse backgrounds, with a concrete metric of investing roughly 1% in each company and fostering strong founder‑LP community ties (e.g., 9 of 33 portfolio founders attending her annual summit). Doherty outlines what institutional investors prioritize when evaluating emerging managers: a clear alignment between the manager’s background and investment strategy, thoughtful communication of that alignment, and measurable graduation rates of portfolio companies (pre‑seed → seed → Series A). The video also captures behind‑the‑scenes moments at the Bridge Funding Global Summit in San Francisco—meditation‑dance exercise, LP dinner, networking, and personal reflections—illustrating how she leverages conference experiences to build relationships and reinforce her inclusive venture narrative.
Chapters
Ah! This was literally a dream 3 years ago.
Paige has quite a story. How she got started, she will share. I don't know if she'll share her age here, but she's definitely a Gen Zer. And the amount of success she got within just a couple of years is just mind-blowing for somebody who barely put their foot in the professional world or in the venture capital world. Pretty impressive fund, impressive manager. Give Paige a round of applause for Paige Doherty behind the scenes.
Okay, so I made it to the Palace, which is where the conference is being held. I had driven past this hotel, um, like 6 times on my past San Francisco trips, and I've always wanted to stay here. So it's really cool to be here for a conference, especially What I'm speaking at. And, um, so earlier today we did a really cool playful exercise where we did a meditation and then danced. When you're talking about like institutional fund-to-fund managers and GPs, I think it was really cool to have that experience of just getting out of our comfort zone. I'm gonna be meeting with other investors and GPs and hearing more about their investing practices. So I'm really excited about that. I like that. I think some of the biggest takeaways that I heard from institutional investors when they're evaluating emerging fund managers is how a background and strategy of a fund manager gel and how thoughtfully that's conveyed. We looked at like the graduation rate of companies from pre-seed to seed, seed to Series A. Um, quick shoe check. I'm currently headed to Sense. For dinner with some of the other speakers and investors. So I'm gonna get ready for that.
LP dinner edition. We're winning.
Okay, it's currently 10 PM. I just got back from dinner and I'm finishing up my speech for tomorrow because I haven't finalized it yet. But, uh, yeah, I'll see you guys tomorrow. The money you made on me.
In 1987, as the only woman in a cohort of 10 MBAs, Paige has quite a story, and the amount of success she got within just a couple of years is just mind-blowing for somebody who barely put their foot in the professional world or in the venture capital world. Pretty impressive fund, impressive manager, gives Please give a big round of applause for Paige Doherty behind me.
Hello everyone. And the commitment that I hold that brought me here today is twofold. So the first is to educate the next generation of venture investors. I fell in love with venture when I was 19, which is a really weird thing to say, but I did. And the second is to move the needle for venture dollars going to women founders. So my strategy is founder-first. I back execution-focused storytelling, mission-driven founders from all backgrounds. And from a principles approach, these are the 3 things that I think have contributed really heavily to my success at a young age. And I would include some founder quotes, but I think the fact that 9 out of 33 founders that we've invested in so far attended our annual summit in San Diego last month. So I'm invested in around like 1% of each of their companies, but they all made the effort to come out to San Diego and meet members of our founder and LP community.
So yeah, thank you for Listen.
Okay, so I'm getting ready for this big meeting. Feeling so surreal this morning. So I tweeted and let's see, I said, 3 years ago, launching a venture firm was just a dream of mine. Yesterday I presented as one of the top 10 emerging managers at the 4th Annual Bridge Funding Global Summit. I felt honored to share my story and hear from others in the venture community advancing inclusivity. Like, this Was literally a dream 3 years ago. And to be in San Francisco presenting at this conference, hearing from all these incredible professionals in the space, um, ah, um, so I'm really excited about my meeting later today. But I was dancing in the shower, I was just feeling such good energy, and at the end of the day, that's all you can ask for. So yeah.
Hi.
I think that was good. Meeting went really well. They gave me a sweatshirt. I went to the park to read for a bit. There's my Kindle, yay! Thought I would see the bridge, didn't. Very windy, a vibe. And then I headed over to the Palace of Fine Arts. Cute, cute.
And I wore a skort.
Then I did some emails and read in a cafe. Yeah, park. And then headed home.
