Zach Perret

Competitive.

I don't know. I love it, though. It drives me in so many senses.

I don't know. I love it, though. It drives me in so many senses.

I don't know. I love it, though. It drives me in so many senses.

I think self-competition is the answer to that, at least for me. At some point, now I care very little about what our competitors do. If we're not as good as we could be, that starts to become a real challenge for me.

I think self-competition is the answer to that, at least for me. At some point, now I care very little about what our competitors do. If we're not as good as we could be, that starts to become a real challenge for me.

I think self-competition is the answer to that, at least for me. At some point, now I care very little about what our competitors do. If we're not as good as we could be, that starts to become a real challenge for me.

MARK BLYTHER- That's a good framing, and I appreciate the spice. Going back to one of the themes that we've had throughout this conversation, you have to examine the specific rationale and reason. For me, as Plaid got bigger, I got sucked later in later stage. I was spending time with the gigantic banks. I was spending time with the gigantic companies.

MARK BLYTHER- That's a good framing, and I appreciate the spice. Going back to one of the themes that we've had throughout this conversation, you have to examine the specific rationale and reason. For me, as Plaid got bigger, I got sucked later in later stage. I was spending time with the gigantic banks. I was spending time with the gigantic companies.

MARK BLYTHER- That's a good framing, and I appreciate the spice. Going back to one of the themes that we've had throughout this conversation, you have to examine the specific rationale and reason. For me, as Plaid got bigger, I got sucked later in later stage. I was spending time with the gigantic banks. I was spending time with the gigantic companies.

And I found that Plaid was, in some sense, losing some of the founder mentality. It was losing some of the fine-grained attention that I needed to pay to the early-stage market. In 2016, I started angel investing, just because I wanted a reason to go talk to these companies.

And I found that Plaid was, in some sense, losing some of the founder mentality. It was losing some of the fine-grained attention that I needed to pay to the early-stage market. In 2016, I started angel investing, just because I wanted a reason to go talk to these companies.

And I found that Plaid was, in some sense, losing some of the founder mentality. It was losing some of the fine-grained attention that I needed to pay to the early-stage market. In 2016, I started angel investing, just because I wanted a reason to go talk to these companies.

and i did a bunch of it like you know had reasons to go talk to founders had reasons to engage with them deeply it kept me fresh it built a great network i learned things that i brought into how we we developed products at plaid i met amazing people who ended up hiring and it's created this like really virtual cycle angel investing actually i think is very distracting to founders the reason for it is um it's personally on you people want to talk to you all the time

and i did a bunch of it like you know had reasons to go talk to founders had reasons to engage with them deeply it kept me fresh it built a great network i learned things that i brought into how we we developed products at plaid i met amazing people who ended up hiring and it's created this like really virtual cycle angel investing actually i think is very distracting to founders the reason for it is um it's personally on you people want to talk to you all the time

and i did a bunch of it like you know had reasons to go talk to founders had reasons to engage with them deeply it kept me fresh it built a great network i learned things that i brought into how we we developed products at plaid i met amazing people who ended up hiring and it's created this like really virtual cycle angel investing actually i think is very distracting to founders the reason for it is um it's personally on you people want to talk to you all the time

You don't have a system for it. You haven't built infrastructure. You have no leverage. And so for me, a good friend and I sat down, and she said, hey, I'm going to go be a full-time VC, but I really want to start a fund. I said, this angel investing stuff is interesting because I learn a lot, but it doesn't have that much meaning, and it takes too much of my time.

You don't have a system for it. You haven't built infrastructure. You have no leverage. And so for me, a good friend and I sat down, and she said, hey, I'm going to go be a full-time VC, but I really want to start a fund. I said, this angel investing stuff is interesting because I learn a lot, but it doesn't have that much meaning, and it takes too much of my time.

You don't have a system for it. You haven't built infrastructure. You have no leverage. And so for me, a good friend and I sat down, and she said, hey, I'm going to go be a full-time VC, but I really want to start a fund. I said, this angel investing stuff is interesting because I learn a lot, but it doesn't have that much meaning, and it takes too much of my time.

And so we decided to partner together. And she kind of decided to go raise a fund. We partnered. We did it together. and that became the first Mischief Fund. Since then, there are two other amazing entrepreneurs, and we've created this fund structure that I have max leverage.