• On becoming an investor and joining Spark Capital

On becoming an investor and joining Spark Capital

Today I’m thrilled to say I’m joining the team at Spark, making the switch from entrepreneur to investor. I’ve known the guys at Spark for years and have admired the unique approach, and the unqualified success they have had. This is a big switch for me, but made easier by working with close friends that I respect.

As you could imagine I thought about this decision rather carefully. I’ve been an entrepreneur as long as I’ve been anything, and I still have boundless energy to work in startups. For me it felt like time to see if I could shift my focus from building a single company to impacting the broader ecosystem.

Anyone who knows me knows I’m a deep believer in startup culture. Not the “startup scene” - who cares about that really - but the engine of learning, risk, and ownership culture that draws so many of us in. Thankfully that ecosystem feels really healthy right now, with more companies starting, and more angels supporting them, in those early days.

As more startups are getting started, the friction has shifted up a level. We need for entrepreneurs to be able to stick with a startup, become CEOs, figure out how their product development scales, and get past the “initial traction” phase. Its a difficult transition, one that I struggled with in my twenties at internetsoccer/Teamtalk, as the company grew from 6 to 300 in a little over a year. More recently for a little under two years at Zynga this same question of how to scale while still being able to maintain an entrepreneurial culture was a constant focus.

Becoming an investor for me feels like allowing myself to work full time on the things I’m already obsessed with. Getting to partner with great entrepreneurs, work with a great team, and making startup growth my field of study.