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

What was TQ Ventures Investor Jana Iris's first investment like?

18 Dec 2022 · 1 min

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In this brief interview segment, Jana Iris reflects on how she entered the world of angel investing. She explains that early in her tech career (circa 2008) venture capital seemed out of reach, with legendary funds and investors appearing untouchable. After leaving her role at HashiCorp, she decided to set aside some cash to try investing. Her first deal came through a friend who introduced her to Gabby, a startup focused on improving breast cancer screening and awareness. Motivated by personal loss—her grandparents died of cancer—Jana chose to back a cause she deeply cares about. She describes the experience as rewarding and educational, noting that the process taught her a great deal about investing.

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I wanna talk about like, what was your first angel investment like? Oh gosh. So again, I, I never thought venture was a route available to me. I think when I started in tech, it seemed in 2008, it seemed like this kind of untouchable thing, right? You had these like legendary funds and these legendary investors and it just felt so off. So I never really paid attention to the world of investing. But then after I left HashiCorp, I was like, okay, well I'm gonna just maybe set aside a little bit of cash, just try to like invest. And my first investment came through a friend. And this woman, she started a company called Gabby that is trying to change the way that breast cancer screening is done and awareness around kind of breast cancer. And I was like, well, that's incredible. That's something I care about, right? My grandma and grandfather passed away from cancer, right? So I'm like, so, so I kind of, I made my first investment based on something I deeply care about. And then once I kind of like, I was like, oh, that was actually really cool, right? I learned a lot through that process.