An underdiscussed aspect of working in venture capital is responsibility. As an industry, we’re on the front lines of deciding what businesses should be built and why — of what the next economy looks like.
If you told me that I’d wait 12 months after joining Venrock to make my first investment, I wouldn’t have believed you. But after spending time with fellow investors, marrying things I learned about what makes a great company with my own ideas, I quickly learned discretion, in venture capital, is the better part of valor. The responsibility I had to not only Venrock, but to society, acutely crystallized.
I’m glad I spent my first year listening and learning, because it led me to GenLogs, which represents my first-ever investment as a Venture Capitalist at Venrock and a distillation of what sterling looks like among the thousands of startups founded each year.
GenLogs’ freight intelligence platform aims to unlock $7 trillion of new global freight flows while fighting $30 billion of fraud and theft. GenLogs’ business success — closing deals with some of the most prolific freight brokers and shippers — is a validation of the value of the platform, even as the company is in its infancy.
For those of us steeped in the world of software, we might think it’s replaced reality — but human existence is physical. We build and move things in the real world, but the systems that do the moving are old and ossified. By investing in GenLogs, which will radically improve how goods move, I’m investing in American prosperity. I’m putting my proverbial finger on the scale, declaring this is the kind of company working in the kinds of industries that we, as the venture community, ought to support.
And I’m investing in the team.
Behind every world-changing idea are people, and from operating experience, I’ve seen firsthand how company leadership can make or break a startup. Ryan, Joe, and Blake are the kind of founding team that have everything I’m looking for: Operational rigor, the acumen to turn vision into execution, and an inherent adaptability. They are the kind of leaders I admire — those who provide the “why” and empower their teams with flexibility in the “how.” They deeply understand their customers’ problems, and build relentlessly to solve them.
On a more personal note, the founding team and I share a background of service. The GenLogs team cut their teeth at the CIA and I’m a Naval Officer. When I first met Ryan, his vision was clear: Leverage the countless lessons we collectively learned from two decades of counterterrorism, especially with data/sensor fusion, to bring clarity to the opacity of how freight moves across the country. A foundation of service binds us, and we have a set of shared values, which gave me deep belief in the productivity of our partnership.
When I consider the founding team, the technology, the industry traction, the importance of the work, one thing is abundantly clear — the sky’s the limit for GenLogs.