- At firms like CapitalG and CRV, a growing number of VCs are former college athletes.
- Some firms like Benchmark have specifically sought out college athletes in recent hires.
- Sports CEOs say the skills and lessons they learned on sports teams make them better investors.
Maggie Basta’s first experience as a teammate came early in life: She grew up playing soccer and was on the Harvard University soccer team. Today, Basta is an investor at Scale Venture Partners and focuses on AI infrastructure and developer tools. Basta is part of a growing number of venture capitalists around the country who are former college athletes and bring lessons learned from years of playing sports to enhance their investment careers.
One of Business Insider’s Venture Capital Rising Stars of 2024, Basta said her experience playing soccer taught her the importance of accountability.
“Your portfolio companies are counting on you and your investment team is counting on you, so showing up and doing what you say you’re going to do as an investor is incredibly important,” she told BI. “If you don’t show up for your team, you’re letting everyone else down and you’re letting everyone else down.”
Some VCs are openly seeking college athletes as employees. In a recent job posting for an associate position at Slow Ventures, the firm cited athletes as great potential candidates.
“Easiest people for us to hire: You scored a 1600 on your SATs and played sports seriously (++ for endurance athletes),” the post read.
Investor Peter Fenton, whose work at Benchmark has led to notable departures including Twitter and Yelp, is a runner and has previously sought to hire student-athletes for assistant positions at the firm, Business Insider previously reported.
In 2022 he hired Vanessa Fraser, a standout athlete from Stanford University, who signed a deal to run professionally for Nike.
“Running has supported me in a more disciplined routine, which translates into higher functioning and higher performance,” Fraser previously told BI. “The biggest surprise for me is that I’m almost less tired than when I was a full-time professional athlete. I’m more mentally stimulated.”
VC firms are looking for college athletes with transferable skills that can make them great investors.
For investors like James Green, a background in sports has been an added value for his VC firm, CRV. Raised in a small town in the United Kingdom, he was one of many young people tapped by the British government as part of an initiative to develop elite sports. He spent 15 years as a rower, culminating in a spot on the Harvard University rowing team.
Green, who focuses on investing in cybersecurity and fintech startups, told BI that VC and rowing are similar because they are both team and individual sports.
“Without a team, you can’t win, but you’re only as good as your slowest man,” he said. “It’s kind of the same in VC—we’re all a team, individually making our own investments. When I make an investment, the team wins.”
Green added that the sport has also taught him patience. Training for years toward an athletic goal parallels a long career of investing in startups and facing highs and lows.
“I’ve been driving at a high level for years, which takes a lot of patience,” he said. “You’re doing sets on the rowing machine and you’re training multiple times a day, sometimes just to go a second faster or even plateau. It’s the same when you’re in an early stage startup. You have to prepare for it be non-linear.”
CapitalG VP Kelly Barton also says that playing sports — in her past and present life — has made her a better investor. The former Massachusetts Institute of Technology rower, who joined CapitalG in 2021, switched to running marathons after graduating and later found success in triathlons.
When she spoke to BI in mid-December, she was about to embark on a trip to Taupō, New Zealand, to compete in the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship.
“One thing I’ve come to appreciate is that the workouts create a forced space for me to think about the companies I support,” she said. “Going back for an extra two hours a day helps me find the space to think about their next steps.”
CapitalG general partner Jesse Welder — who himself was on the University of California-Berkeley’s rowing team — told BI that Barton and the other members of his team, all of whom are former college athletes , have more effort. There are many former student athletes at CapitalG, including AI investment partner Jill Chase, who was the captain of the Williams College women’s basketball team, and managing partner Laela Sturdy, who was the captain of the Harvard women’s basketball team .
“Athletes are competitive people who are driven to succeed more than the average person,” he said. “In an investment job, there’s so much you can keep learning, and it never stops mentally. Endurance athletes, and athletes in general, are a good fit for that.”
Barton’s work at CapitalG has continued to complement her sport: she won her age group at December’s IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship and became the women’s 25-29 world champion.
“I’m my best athlete when I’m my best self, and that means I’m well-rested and making time for my relationships and my work,” she said.