Earlier this year, we announced the promotions of Ali and Chelsea to our partnership at Equal. With >15 years of combined experience working with these two, it’s been great to see them elevate into these roles and I’m excited to see what the future will bring for them. As a firm, we are looking to expand, but as a small team, hiring is deeply surgical. Finding the right folks for a small team is different from hiring in big firms, especially in VC where a single person can ultimately be responsible for a tremendous amount of capital. Just as important is the impact that person has on the culture, direction and reputation of the firm. A great teammate makes everyone around them better, so you aren’t just hiring for the right skillsets, but for the right person. I’ve always been a core believer in cognitive diversity so I’m not looking for carbon copies of myself, but rather folks that are different, but complementary to the existing DNA of the firm. I ask myself:
Will they bring new networks and ideas into our firm that we previously couldn’t access?
Will they adhere to the values and principles that are distinct to our firm, while bringing new ethos that help us become better investors and partners to those we work with?
Will this person help bring me and the firm to places we have never been before?
Will they be able to work collaboratively with the other members of our firm to ensure cohesion > conflict?
Will they benefit and grow from our own lattice of mental models and experiences?
I’ve spent a LOT of my time (along with Chelsea and Ali as well) evaluating talent over the last 6 months and have been humbled by the talent we’ve come across. With that, we are excited to announce the addition of Jon Healy to the team. Jon joins us from Cathay where he worked with my good friend Simon Wu and worked with us on David Energy. Jon has known our team for a long time and aligns heavily with our focus areas on energy and supply chain. A native of Buffalo who went to Case Western and then worked his way into McKinsey and then venture, Jon has a 24/7 motor that only comes with a subtle chip on his shoulder (something that I certainly have as well). He’s a sourcing machine, but more impressive than that, has been how I’ve seen him interact with founders via my experience at David Energy. He’s one of the most informed and impactful folks in the room and everyone feels it. He also is deeper in areas like physical AI, manufacturing and robotics that we see as emerging focus areas within our sectors and will help us develop a more informed POV on how to play those types of opportunities. Jon is coming to us from the Bay Area to be closer to his family with the blessing of Simon/Cathay and we’re incredibly excited to work with him.
We’ve also hired Sophia Nguyen as our Event Operations lead. As many of you know, community has become the lifeblood of our firm, enabling us to bring innovators and incumbents together with our industry conferences like the Climate Capital Summit, Insurance Capital Summit and Commerce Capital Summit. Collectively, these industry summits have brought together investors managing well into the trillions of dollars of capital, executives of companies managing trillions of dollars of enterprise value and founders who built hundreds of billions of dollars worth of companies. These events complement our off-cycle programming, AGM meetings and, of course, our pride and joy, the Emerging Manager Circle Summit. Our budget for events is nearly 7 figures a year, requiring precision operations, an eye for detail and the ability to coordinate amongst thousands of people a year.
When we came across Sophia, we knew she was perfect for this role having led similar events for Plug and Play, demonstrating an ability to master the nuances of industry incumbents, founders and venture capital networks. A California-native and USC grad (as a Michigan fan, I’m sure this fall will be contentious), Sophia brings a warm personality with impeccable execution to our team. Her eagerness for collaboration, learning and positivity have stood out in this process and it comes through with her commitment to founders. She’s always looking for ways we can further deepen our value proposition to our companies and that’s exactly what we want to see out of an Equal team member.
While we’re elated to have Jon and Sophia join us, our growth doesn’t stop there. For better or worse, we are a firm that works our asses off and always looking to grow our platform. We have some exciting updates that we’ll make public later this year and are looking to add more exceptional individuals to the team in the months to come (we’re most heavily focused on adding a few Analysts/Associates, but are open to folks at all levels). We believe in talent > pedigree, wisdom > IQ and determination > all else. If this sounds like you and you share our passion for transforming the energy, insurance, retail or supply chain markets, we’d love to hear from you.
