Katherine Boyle

And so after about a year of that, they brought me on full time as a staff writer because I was breaking stories and things as someone who really wasn't affiliated with the paper.

But it was not what I wanted to do.

It was not like my dream was to be a reporter, but there was something about just being in that place at the right time where I was like, okay, I can make something out of this major setback or this thing that I thought was a major setback.

And I can learn a new trade even if it's not the thing that I thought I would be doing.

Yeah.

Well, yeah, I mean, it's a good question because it's also what venture capitalists do.

Like, how do you get dropped into a culture you know nothing about, which was the case with VC, and start meeting people and start building up relationships?

And I think like, you know, the interesting thing about doing it as a reporter is they give you a beat.

Like my beat in the beginning was like retail and the business of, you know, like almost like the business of arts and culture.

And then it moved on to like nonprofit investigations.

So I started researching like the Smithsonian Institution and all of the government funded

agencies in Washington DC and art agencies and different things and sort of where they were getting their money from and kind of follow the money, but at the nonprofit areas.

But it started out as like, okay, like you get your assignment and then you just start calling people.

And the thing I know you know better than anyone else is like, people just love to talk.

People will tell you anything if you will sit there and listen.

And when you're a 24, 25-year-old who knows nothing, and you call someone and you say, hey, I'm, you know, this reporter from the Washington Post.

Can we get coffee?

You know, I'd just love to hear more about what you know.

Can you show me what I should know about this beat?

Like, you do that over and over and over again, and people will tell you what you need to know.