We're a single family office here in New York City. That's right. You don't mess with the bull. You
get the horns. Go Knicks. So we invest in primarily growth stage venture crossover investments.
So sector agnostic. It's a little easier to say what we don't invest in. We don't do real estate.
And we don't do funds. But everything else we look at, we tend to look series B on.
What's the question? What else am I supposed to say?
So you've talked about your investment structures. You've talked about the tech. How deep do you
get into the tech? Are you more frontier science? We're really actually pretty sector agnostic.
We do a lot of biotech and life science. We do have expertise in that space. When it comes to deep
tech, we usually have to bring in someone on the outside to help with diligence. We're not PhDs or
chemists. Our focus is less on the tech and more on the timeline to exit.
So for us, it's more, do we see this company scaling quickly enough to go through an IPO within a
few years?
It's less about, is this the most incredible technology in the world? Some of it is, but we
wouldn't recognize that. So what we're looking for is a scalable company. It's very much about the
team.
It's all about the team, really,
technology out there but if we don't believe that the company has the leadership to bring that
technology through to an exit, then you're a scientist. We love scientists. Scientists are
incredible human beings. Just learn when it's time to hire a CEO. That is my advice to all of the
brilliant people that have all the brilliant technology and the life-saving work. Please learn how
to hire somebody that can get you to the commercial stage once you have educated them on your
brilliance. That would be my word of advice there. And that's great advice.
So Lisa, if they are not at the stage where they brought on that CFO or that other leadership
support who has experience implementing the ideas, is that something you'd pass on or do you get
involved in helping them get to that stage or bring it on or that's not your take?
For us, I'll give an example. There was a technology I saw that might have been the most exciting
thing I've seen in years. I think it's actually a game-changing technology when it comes to
climate science and energy. It's so relevant. It's probably the best tech I've seen,
and we were really close to investing, but the founder is just not a CEO, and the guy just won't
get out of his own way. When he hires a CEO, we might go in. No, it's not my job to run your
business or to find you a CEO. My job is to evaluate you as a team. Are you ready?
Do I think you have what it takes? If you don't, that's great. Develop it. Learn it. Come back to
me when you've got your act together. That's for me. I also think if you are a great leader,
a great CEO, a great technologist, and just a terrible public speaker, that's okay. Hire someone to
represent you. Do not go into a pitch meeting and bore me in a minute.
If I'm bored in a minute, Why would I want to work with you for a year? Just think about that,
right? It's so much about the people. And you also have to think you're going to work with these
people, you're going to know these people, it's a relationship. If somebody talks at me and they
can't actually process what I've asked them, they're just on their set pitch and you realize
they're not actually interacting with you at all like a human, they're just repeating what they've
been taught, that's a clear sign to me that you are not going to be able to navigate a business.
I want someone that's flexible, that understands that they might have to change their point of
view. They might have to cooperate with someone else. So if I don't like the person, I don't care
how good your business is, I'm not going to invest with you. And Lisa's advice is unisex.
That goes for the men as well as for the women. So be careful. Don't get Lisa bored.
Never bore me. And then my humor, right? So a priest, a rabbi, no, I'm joking.
I'm not going to.
If we have time at the end, we'll go there. But we have had some very good insights from the two
panelists so far that I want to bring up before we go to our next panelist. And both of them have
raised the important point that you have to be careful. to whom you are writing that check, right?
And it's about the people, and it's about the people more so than about the idea.
But at the same time, both of them also brought forward some great ideas. Camille mentioned
innovation in the energy space and the importance of being involved there and impact focus.
And then Lisa talked also about the venture space, and she's very focused on the direct deals.
And in the direct deals, even more so the... matter. So I think some important takeaways already
about where their successes have sprung from. Hi, I'm Richard C.
Wilson. Our community has closed over $1 billion of transactions. We have over 16 million
registered members across 100 plus LinkedIn groups. And I own billionaires.com and run Family
Office Club. Over 19 years, we've hosted 300 live events. I've built 50 of our own AI tools.
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