The High Flyers Podcast with Vidit Agarwal Adrian Petersen: Deep seeded professional athlete ambitions in Tennis & Cycling to co-founding AfterWork Ventures, and how they're doing things a little different
Learn about drive and determination at a young age with a deep desire to be a professional athlete, to then having his startup shut down and making his way into VC and co-founding AfterWork Ventures, a community led VC doing things differently for the next gen.
Welcome to episode #73 w Adrian Petersen! Here are 5 key takeaways you will learn from this episode:
- Deep determination and focus to be a professional athlete, being obsessed with Tennis & Cycling at a young age
- The importance of be team first and win collectively with an "open up" policy
- Adrian's non traditional path to Venture Capital
- The birth of AfterWork and the cold start challenge of building a community
- Biggest surprise about investing in Sports Tech startups
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TIMESTAMPS
02:31 - Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra
03:48 - Dream to become a tennis player
05:25 - Both parents worked in grandpa’s scaffolding company
06:25 - Roger Federer and Lance Armstrong
07:25 - Australian Institute of Sport
08:45 - importance of be team first now vs being single mildly focused in his past
10:11 - Working with people smarter than you
12:00 - Learning the importance of “open up” when closing his first business
15:12 - First 3 months re-setting to find next opportunity
16:40 - The path to becoming a VC
19:55 - The birth of AfterWork
24:28 - Cold start challenge of building a community
26:20 - Deal flow sources being a community first VC
30:23 - Ability to significantly follow on
32:21 - Direct to consumer investments
34:15 - Investor changing sentiment
36:46 - Mentors that have shaped his thinking
38:20 - Going from zero to one and beyond
40:26 - In house team complimenting the community advisors
42:14 - Investing in sports focused startups
43:30 - final sprint
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Contact Vidit at vidit@curiositycenter.xyz