September 26, 2020
Hey Everyone,
My name is Isaiah. Some readers will know me and be very familiar with my story, but many will not be.
I am a disabled, Black, Latino, Native American, Portuguese and German man whose father was an alcoholic and who was raised by a single mother for most of his childhood. Statistically I shouldn’t be where I am today. Unfortunately, my story is all too common for those that look like me, but the outcomes I’ve had are extremely uncommon (I was fortunate that my mother is a rockstar and my #1 role model).
My entire life I’ve been discounted, judged and stereotyped because of how and I look and how I walk (my law school classmates openly judged me for not taking a traditional path). I’ve faced discrimination in ways that I can’t even begin to describe.
These experiences have led my entire life’s purpose to be centered around providing resources to those who look like me so that they too might have similar outcomes (it’s why I decided to go to law school at the age of 10).
It’s also why I decided to go to business school and to ultimately co-found Fuerza Ventures with Sebastián. Investing is not our top priority with this venture – our top priority is to be a resource for those who too often do not have access to the same resources that their white counterparts do. The venture capital industry has a serious diversity problem and we want to help change that.
I measure my life’s worth on how many people I’ve been able to uplift and I hope this new venture will help me in that goal.
Some background about me – I am a venture attorney by trade and did my undergraduate degree at USC, attended law school at Stanford and I am currently enrolled in the Evening MBA program at the University of Washington’s Michael G. Foster School of Business. My full time job is managing venture transactions at AngelList as well as managing operations for our latest product, Rolling Funds. I’ve been in the venture capital industry for 3 years now.
I never planned to become a venture capital attorney, nor did I plan to work in the venture capital industry. When I started my legal career at O’Melveny, I was going to be a M&A attorney. I was fortunate that a partner at the firm, and a mentor of mine, Tony Wang, was deeply embedded in the venture capital industry and just so happened to need junior associates to work on his deals. I fell in love with the work, but wanted to do more, so I packed everything up and moved to Seattle (where I had only visited twice before) to become an associate at Fenwick & West.
I loved Fenwick, the people and the work, but I hated the hours. Working at a big law firm long term was not for me as it did not give me the time I wanted for the things that fulfill me (family above all, mentoring, and friendships). Luckily, I decided to apply for a position at Belltower Fund Group (AngelList’s fund management arm) and was offered a position. Throughout my time at Belltower, my boss Quinn has essentially used me like a Swiss army knife and I’ve had the opportunity to grow and learn skills in so many different areas including legal operations, fund operations, portfolio operations, customer service, marketing, compliance and sales. When Quinn asked me to join the Rolling Funds operations team, I jumped at the opportunity because it is a product that I am truly excited about!
This experience led me to realize that it’s time for me to leave my life as a lawyer behind (this has been shocking to those who have known me my entire life). I’m ready for the next phase of my life. The venture capital industry often silences the voices of BIPOCs and especially women of color and I want to amplify those voices. This is why we started Fuerza Ventures. We are going to be in the trenches with our founders through the thick and thin. I’m always on my grind. I worked two jobs in undergrad every semester, held an internship and took a full course load. In law school, I worked during my first, second and third year (almost full-time) at KKR in San Francisco and then commuted to Stanford at night. I know what it takes to be successful because I’ve been grinding my entire life. It is that grit and determination that I see in BIPOC founders. They are who we want in our portfolio.
We want to be friends first, advisors second and investors last. Please don’t come to us for the first time when you’re raising a round. Come to us when you’re just starting up so that we can help you navigate some of the roadblocks. We don’t want to just sit on cap tables. Matter of fact, please come to us even if you have no intention of having us as investors – I am always willing to have a conversation about anything and everything. This doesn’t just go for founders, our doors are always open to future lawyers, operators, or anyone just interested in learning more.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, I appreciate it!
