The Kurty D Show

015 - The Compassionate Capitalist with Brian Garrett

Episode Summary

I'm excited to share my conversation with my friend, Brian Garrett, the Co-founder and Managing Director at Crosscut Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Los Angeles, California. With over 20 years of investing and operating experience. Brian brings humanity and empathy to the lonely plight of starting and scaling startup companies. And I've seen him work tirelessly to help entrepreneurs succeed. Brian really does bring a paradigm of abundance, humility, and humanity to a space that is often zero-sum and dog-eat-dog. And because of all of this, the show has a lot to offer anyone interested in tech investing, product development, wellness, and of course, surfing. Brian was one of the organizers and cross-cut, co-sponsored the "Making Waves" Event at Kelly Slater's world-famous Surf Ranch that we collaborated on in November 2021.

Episode Notes

Key Takeaways:

• Surf Ranch discussion around the whole experience of the event
• Playing competitive volleyball at Stanford
• Taking an MBA to really find out what Brian is interested in
• What is Crosscut Ventures
• Sense of the emerging future for Los Angeles
• Just as entrepreneurs tweak their business and their business models, so do Venture Capital funds. The smartest / best VCs stay relevant to entrepreneurs by differentiating their capital.
• How we show up is more important than what we accomplish
• Flow and let go mindset

Quotes:

• All these things I face, I was just carrying the weight of this world. And it was so much about the next achievement instead of being able to stop and say, "You know what, I've achieved enough, like to what end you have to keep grinding?" And I was grinding. In a moment of clarity, I said, "Okay, how do I instead wake up and live in joy every single day?" "How can I wake up content with what I've done?" I'm not saying I'm stopping. I'm still competitive, but content in what I've done and realizing that how I show up is more important than what I accomplish." - Brian Garrett
• "Don't take any day for granted. It can end in a blink of an eye."- Brian Garrett, co-founder of Crosscut Ventures
• "How I show up is more important than what I accomplish." - Brian Garrett, co-founder of Crosscut Ventures
• "I'll take true domain and in the trenches experience, even if it's failed experience over pedigree any day." - Brian Garrett, co-founder of Crosscut Ventures

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/kurtyd

Kurt’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/kurtyd/

Kurt’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/kurtdaradics

Kurt’s newsletter – https://www.kurtyd.com/

Rate the podcast – https://ratethispodcast.com/kurtyd

Brian's LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/briangarrett1/

Brian's Twitter – https://twitter.com/brianmgarrett

The Inertia's Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theinertia/

Crosscut's Website – https://crosscut.vc/