tenacity tests

Q4.25 LP update excerpt

Tenacity is one of my favorite words, and feelings. There’s nothing like being presented with an opportunity to be brave and taking it. It pushes you out of your comfort zone inch by inch until one day you open your eyes and realize you’ve completely changed your position on what you believe you can do.

This past year has been a real test of my tenacity. I went from struggling to raise my second fund to running full force at what I always wanted to build with Moth, but thought I needed to wait several years to actualize.

The truth was that my first fundraise spoiled me. It was anchored by people I respected who had mostly made their own money, and I didn’t have to work that hard to convince them to back me. I assumed Fund II would work the same way — just do it again at a larger scale with some institutional LPs mixed in.

I quickly learned how wrong I was. Raising from capital owners (typically HNWs) versus capital allocators (institutions) is a completely different game, and I didn’t know how to run an institutional fundraise process. After two months of spinning my wheels, I paused, closed on what I’d raised, and deployed it. That gave me time to consider my options.

Once I started to see the signs that I could be leading rounds, I decided it was time to go big or go home. I rebuilt the fund model and through trial and error, taught myself how to sell to capital allocators. It’s been a learning curve, but after a few months of pitching the new strategy I saw it start to work in a big way.

There are a few things that I attribute this shift to. One, I started asking for help, even when I felt intense shame discussing what felt like my personal inadequacies and every fiber of my being wanted to run away. Two, I started taking more responsibility for the situation and made an effort to root out my victim mentality.

Lastly, I practiced my pitch a lot. Both with my target audience (LPs) and with my peers (GPs). Getting Moth and my story to a place where I could say it in my sleep allowed me to show up with more ease in conversation. Being more fully present lets me tap into my genuine excitement for what I’m doing, as well as feel more generative and open to the possibilities of where the conversation could go. Practicing with friends right before important pitches helps kickstart this attitude and show, not tell, where my edge comes from.

Fundamentally, I like the proximity investing gives me to incredible people. I like how much autonomy I have. I like how I can exert my taste on the world through the people I fund. I like learning more about humans every single day. But what I don’t like is fundraising, nor the majority of people who call themselves VCs.

Authenticity and tenacity are my most durable advantages — both in fundraising and in backing founders. I’ve been running Moth Fund long enough to have plenty of data points on the lived reality of doing this job. I intimately know the parts I don’t like but also, crucially, why I choose to stay.