Meetings, pitches, and airplanes oh my!
It is a busy week for me. I have jammed up my schedule with pitches and meetings with old friends and new ones. Early-stage investing is a relationship game, and it takes a good deal of work to stay top of mind and build authentic connections.
It is conference season here in Phoenix. It is incredible how much startup activity had increased in orders of magnitude from when I started scouting deals here in 2015. Companies are being funded by both in-state and out-of-state investors alike. This week I am going to Venture Madness on Thursday and the Unmet Conference on Friday.
The Unment Conference is put on by some of the two most scrappy capital allocators I know- John Francis and Clay Gordan at Stout Street Capital. If Seed investing isn’t hard enough, they have also brought it upon themselves to throw regional conferences in select geographies every year. I am lucky to have some 1-1 time with them today before the circus begins.
One of the top-tier belt loopers in my network Jason Smith of Sopris Capital, is flying in on Friday for one of the conferences. Jason is one of the most intelligent investors I know, not to mention a complete workhorse. I will be sharing a meal with him this week at one of Phoenix’s finest restaurants – Ocean 44.
Today is portfolio company day. I will have a meeting at ZombieBox in the AM and then fly to Newport Beach for a closing dinner of DWP Capital’s newest deal (announcement coming soon)!.
