Leigh shares how her deep-rooted curiosity and knack for connecting people made her who she is today and drives passion for her career.
I feel grateful that my parents made their South African identities an integral part of our household (afternoon tea with milk, anyone?) and fostered my hunger to explore the world around me.
My parents taught me that living a good life is accomplished by being a good person, by looking outward rather than inward. I actually think that their example is in part what led me to my role today.
I love the symbiotic nature of the fund —it’s such a unique differentiator to see up close how transformative our investments can and will be.
My family emigrated from South Africa to Dallas, Texas, when I was around five years old. While I would be remiss not to acknowledge its troubled history, I appreciate the multifaceted culture and unique traditions of the country that housed four generations of my family. I feel grateful that my parents never let go of their South African identities, but rather made it an integral part of our household (afternoon tea with milk, anyone?) and fostered a love of different backgrounds and hunger to explore the world around me.
One hundred percent. They taught me that living a good life is accomplished by being a good person, by looking outward rather than inward. I actually think that their example is in part what led me to my role today, and why I get so much energy and excitement from helping our fantastic founders navigate their startup journey.
History — and I loved every second of it. Not only are you constantly immersed in stories that are arguably better than fiction, but you learn so much about leadership, human nature, virtues and vices and motivation. You learn to recognize patterns, to analyze trends, to read three levels deeper than the text in front of you and to somehow reconcile past, present and future.
Kinda.
I love the symbiotic nature of the fund — that our B2B technology companies are here to fuel the success of consumer brands, and the consumer brands do the same for our tech companies. It’s such a unique differentiator to see up close how transformative our investments can and will be.
Helping our founders find the people that are going to help them build their company. I love figuring out the traits and attributes they look for and value in their peers, truly understanding what keeps them up at night, and then finding the one person whose very passion is to fix that problem — and doing it in a way that the founder would appreciate.
It's my favorite kind of puzzle to solve.