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20VC: Matt Mochary, Coach To Silicon Valley's Leading VCs & Founders on How To Deal with Imposter Syndrome and Self-Doubt, How To Manage Fear and Anger & Why Board Seats Are The Death of Investors

Mar 9, 2020

Matt Mochary, an executive coach for top VCs and founders, shares his unique insights from his journey as a growth investor and entrepreneur. He discusses the pervasive issues of imposter syndrome and self-doubt, offering techniques like 'energy audits' to help regain confidence. Matt emphasizes the importance of managing fear and anger for better decision-making and advocates for radical transparency in communication. He also touches on optimizing team dynamics by aligning roles with passions and the critical nature of building trust within board relationships.

37:51

Creator website

Episode guests

Matt Mochary

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Episode notes

Intro

3min

Navigating the Startup Journey: Emotions and Transparency

14min

Navigating the Cycles of Anger and Self-Criticism

2min

Overcoming Imposter Syndrome through Energy Audits

3min

Strengths, Feedback, and Board Dynamics

12min

Engaging Technology with Social Responsibility

2min

Exploring Psychological Optimization and Business Solutions

2min

Matt Mochary coaches some of the world's leading venture capitalists and founders helping them to build the best organizations possible. On the VC side, Matt has worked with Peter Fenton @ Benchmark, several Sequoia Partners, Hemant @ GC and Mamoon @ Kleiner to name a few. As for founders, Matt has worked with the founders of Brex, Coinbase, Plaid, Reddit, Flexport and more. Prior to coaching, Matt began his business career as an investor with Spectrum Equity Investors. He then co-founded Totality, eventually sold to MCI/Verizon. In his own words, Matt went on to have fun (making the Academy Award short-listed documentary Favela Rising) and do good (starting the Mochary Foundation).

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Matt made his way from growth investor to immensely successful founder to now coaching the world's leading investors and founders?

2.) How does Matt advise founders to think about their relationship towards fear and anger? Why doe they generate bad quality of decision-making? What should be done when one recognises they are fearful or angry? Where do many founders and investors go wrong here?

3.) How does Matt advise founders who struggle with issues of self-doubt and imposter syndrome? What process should they go through to gain their confidence? What should they not do? How should they communicate their self-doubt to their team and the world?

4.) How does Matt advise founders in terms of the optimal communication strategy both with their team and their co-founders? Does radical transparency need to be instant or should it be timed correctly? What are the best conflict resolution strategies between founding teams?

5.) Why does Matt believe boards are the death of investors? Why are board members not optimally placed to advise their founders? What does Matt believe makes the best board members having worked with the likes of Peter Fenton? What does Matt advise new board members to be the best board member they can be?

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