Being an investor in the early stages of companies has a lot of responsibility. You know the money you are putting in is a vote of confidence, but your role is even more important, you become a sounding board, a mentor, and in the best cases, a friend to the founder. Our guest today is Sam Haffar, Partner at Real Ventures, and he knows this road very well.
This was a great chat and it was wonderful to hear Sam’s perspective on investing and the markets.
And we also have reactions to the week’s news with John Ruffolo.
About Sam Haffar:
Sam Haffar is Partner at Real Ventures, where he works with founders on all aspects of their business from organizational development and product strategy to series A fundraising, growth, and scale initiatives.
He began in the Silicon Valley startup world barely before he graduated from university and then joined the founding team at Chegg, a leading education technology company that went public in 2013.
In this episode we discuss:
(0:00:56) News roundup with John Ruffolo talks Thoma Bravo acquiring Magnet Forensics, preventing hollowing out Canada, ChatGPT’s threat to white collar workers, and activist investors
(0:19:03) Sam Haffar’s journey to becoming an investor
(0:22:39) Where Sam gets his drive
(0:25:21) On becoming an extrovert
(0:27:57) How Sam came to the Canadian tech scene
(0:32:14) Coping with imposter syndrome as an early investor
(0:36:14) Processing the emotional rollercoaster of being an early-stage investor
(0:43:10) Staying grounded when things may look a bit too rosy
(0:48:57) How founders can deal with adversity
(0:52:00) Backing founders super early
(0:54:43) Work-life balance with young kids at home
(0:57:56) What keeps Sam passionate about this space
(1:01:07) His vision as a content creator in the space
(1:04:18) Content creators he admires
(1:06:23) How he supports his portfolio as they grow
Fast Favorites:
🎙- Favorite Podcast: Lex Fridman
📰- Favorite Newsletter/Blog: Waverly
📲- Favorite Tech Gadget: iPhone
📈- Favorite New Trend: ChatGPT
📚- Favorite Book: Kitchen Confidential
🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: If you live by fear, you create a fearful world. But if you live by love, you create a fear less world, not fearless, but fear less world.
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Sam Haffar of Real Ventures on the Evolving Role of Early-Stage Investors