"When the door is closed, find a window. 
And be kind"

I find the startup culture exhilarating. The prospect of meeting the team on the brink of disrupting the status quo is extremely exciting. Meeting mission-driven founders is the best part of this job, I’m humbled I get to do this every day. 

Integrity is the most important thing to me. If we can’t stay true to what we believe in, the rewards fall short. Even in a competitive industry like venture capital, I believe in treating all parties respectfully. I believe I can be a good investor while honoring my personal values. 

I’m passionate about empowering investors. I found investing in startups to be a steep learning curve, I was lucky to have some great mentors who took me under their wing when I was venturing into full-time investing. In my corporate career, I learned how to negotiate strongly and fairly, and I will always fight hard to protect my investors. I want to pay it forward and share my knowledge with other investors. 

An entrepreneur that I admire is Mike Cannon-Brookes and Bill Gates because not only have are they phenomenally successful entreprenuers, they are good human beings. Both use the power of their profile and financial resources to have a positive impact on the world.

I get asked a lot where the name Jelix comes from. When our boys Jasper and Felix were small, we used to have family story time, featuring the adventures of their alter egos, Fasper and Jelix. When we founded Jelix, we wanted to capture that sense of extraordinary joy and excruciating excitement – the thought that anything is possible. For us, that’s what startups are all about. 

People who meet me now may not know that I was a professional rock climber in my 20s. I’ve climbed all the big rock walls and was featured in a rock climbing documentary called Free Climbing.