Hi Everyone! Many of you reading this will know who I am (at least in the early days) but as time goes on, many of you will have no clue who I am and will wonder “why am I reading this?” Well, I’ll start off by introducing myself and then tell you why I decided pursue authenticity in venture and launch Investing with Isaiah.
Who am I?
I am a multi-racial (Black, Native American, Mexican, German, and Portuguese), disabled (cerebral palsy) son of an amazing mother and a father who was unfortunately an alcoholic and passed away just before my 21st birthday (I recently realized that my dad was cremated on my 21st birthday). I am someone who suffers from anxiety, panic attacks, agoraphobia and is in some form of physical pain every day of his life.
I am also a startup and venture capital attorney turned early-stage and late-stage operator, mentor, advisor, angel investor and VC. I have worked for O’Melveny, Fenwick & West, AngelList, Silicon Valley Bank, Microsoft, Carta and most recently, Dori. I have counseled startups and investors, both big and small, built products from the ground up and AngelList and now Dori, and served as an ecosystem and partnerships connector at Silicon Valley Bank, Microsoft and Carta. I have also started my own micro-VC fund called Fuerza Ventures and angel Invest in pre-seed and seed companies led by underrepresented founders.
Mentoring, coaching and advising is what I love the most. I spend a ton of time mentoring, coaching, advising and playing ecosystem connector for underrepresented founders of pre-seed and seed stage companies.
Why Start Investing with Isaiah?
My personal mission in life is to help as many people as I can and my professional mission in life is to help as many underrepresented founders as I can. Unfortunately, there are only 24 hours in the day, and I have a demanding day job, plus various side projects. I’ve always had a passion for writing and know that I can reach more people by writing about my personal and professional life, but also by providing actionable advice & documenting my version of authenticity in venture to people within this ecosystem.
Too many times founders tell me that they talked to a VC, or a mentor and it was a waste of time because they said, “this is really hard, and I don’t understand your business.” No duh its really hard! This is all hard, especially if you’re an underrepresented founder, but I guarantee you its not the hardest thing you’ve done and overcome in your life. I’m writing to give advice that goes something like “yeah this is hard, but here are 5 things that you can do to move forward, or here are 5 people I can connect you with to help you move this forward.
How You Can Reach Me
Feel free to reach out to me via email, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. I’ve open sourced my calendar on LinkedIn and I’m not always super responsive to emails that aren’t work emails (I promise I’m not ghosting you) and anyone can schedule time on my calendar.
Thanks for reading and I’m excited to kick this journey off with you!
