2020
Where it began:
Let me set the stage here : The year was 2020. Everywhere was closed due to lockdown. I finally had enough of Ireland and decided to pursue my lifelong dream of moving to New York at the ripe age of 18. My family had a history of entrepreneurship (Dad and Grandfather both having owned local businesses in Ireland) but I knew I was going to be different. I had an uncontrollable burning desire inside me to make a difference and leave my mark on peoples lives and positively impact the world.
I packed my bags and said my goodbyes to my brothers, sister, my mom and all my friends and headed towards Dublin airport.
September 22nd
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March 23rd
Arriving in the US :
I landed in JFK with a sense of pure excitement as the wheels of the Aer Lingus plane met the New York pavement. New York quickly became my new home & I knew this is where I had to be. Given that I graduated during Covid, there was a delay in my transcripts and so I decided to pick up a job to pass the time until applications reopened in January.
I got a job at a local ski shop out on Long Island and that is where my journey started. I was a shy Irish kid who knew nothing about Skiing, who quickly fell in love with sales. I became obsessed with helping people and started looking at different careers that favored those characteristics. Then there it was, VC. I had the ability to combine my passion for Entrepreneurship with my skills as a salesperson who was passionate about helping people.
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The Internship:
The reason why the ski shop holds so much value in this story is not only because it helped me unlock my qualitative abilities, but also because it lead to this, the internship. I met a man in the store who recognized my enthusiasm for helping people and offered to take me under his wing as an apprentice. I met him at the perfect time as the store was closing for the season in march and I began working with him two weeks later.
Sentegrity Advisors was an intermediary/advisory to early stage startups looking to raise capital and targets of M&A opportunities. My main responsibility there was cold outreach & networking with all types of investors (HNWI,Angels,VC’S,Family Offices). I developed over 1000 + connections that were strategic to the firm and life felt great. I quickly graduated to an associate there and later became Junior Partner.
My time at VU Venture Partners :
VU Venture Partners is a multi-stage venture capital fund focusing on Consumer, Enterprise, FinTech, Frontier, Healthcare, and PropTech. I got to speak directly with the two main GP’s : Sky Fernandes (Cleveland Avenue) & Andrew Zalasin ( RRE Ventures) who collectively have over 45+ years experience combined in VC. They’ve invested in companies such as (Facebook, Uber, Twitter, Stripe, Venmo, Gemini and many others).
This was a 12 week program where we had a masterclass the very first week and the other 11 were focused on sourcing new investments for the portfolio.
During my time at VU I learned how to properly conduct due diligence, I participated in IC meetings and Partners meetings, Ive written up deal memos and networked with 100s of amazing founders and individuals.
I also started focusing more on my own personal brand by being authentic and leveraging platforms such as Linkedin and Twitter. I also attended many events in NYC and I had the pleasure of participating in Starta VC Accelerator’s pitch competition as a Judge.
December 1st
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What Now?
2023
The Breakthrough :
In January of 2023 I decided to leave Sentegrity to pursue a more traditional VC role investing at a firm. I asked for advice from my network and I was unwilling to sacrifice the time I devoted into building out my network and go back to college for 4 years. I spoke with a gentleman who I now consider as a friend and a mentor, Bernardt Vogel.
He introduced me to VU Venture Partners and told me about Venture University, an investor accelerator where only 1% of applicants are accepted into. This was officially my breakthrough into venture investing.
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June 6th
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As I continue to search for an analyst role at a VC fund, I am actively scouting for Goahead Ventures & LvLUp Ventures, as well as investing at New Era Ventures. I have also been accepted as a mentor for Techstars which is pretty cool!
I have also started a podcast called The Young Money Podcast focused on junior VC’s, Founders, people in tech. My goal is to democratize this well-kept secretive industry and give people a platform to voice their non-traditional backgrounds.