This weekend, I had the great privilege of taking my wife on to LA to celebrate our fourth anniversary.  We were supposed to go to a tantric yoga intimacy retreat, but it got canceled because of COVID.   They wanted to do zoom instead. So we opted for a refund and went to LA anyway.

As my wife napped on the plane, a reaction from caring for three young children, I got to thinking. I need to focus on my deal sourcing abilities.  Even though I will invest nationally, I must first see everything locally.  I realized my local network was lacking when I saw the recent Equipifi funding press release.  I had no idea who they were and was surprised to learn that my friend Jon Kaiden from Miami funded them.  Unbelievable.

I don’t have great relationships with the deal guys in Phoenix, even though I have been investing in this town for seven years.   It’s embarrassing.  The reason for this is because my former partner, Todd Belfer, nurtured most of the relationships.  It’s my turn.

I started my journey this week with Tom Curzon, now retired but formerly with Osborne Maledone.  When people think of Phoenix startups, they think of Tom.  He gave me a hit list of names.  I know all of them, but I do not have a real relationship with them.  I have pledged to myself that this will be rectified.

It’s going to be an exciting week.  We have an Allbound board meeting and I am heading to the east coast to learn more about a company that I am seriously considering leading their Series A. Onward.