Our guest today is Andrew Goldner. Andrew is a lawyer and Co-Founder & CEO of GrowthX - a venture capital fund based out of San Francisco.
Andrew’s resume doesn’t read like a typical VC Partner. Although Andrew started his career in New York, it wasn’t on Wall Street, nor was it in finance, or even as a startup founder.
Andrew started his journey as an internet lawyer, back when the internet was an emerging technology. Though successful by every measure, Andrew became restless after several years of practice. Specifically, he took issue with the fact that the legal profession emphasized the time spent, rather than the value added to their clients.
After some deliberation, Andrew decided to leave the firm and embarked on an eclectic journey that took him to DoubleClick (a startup eventually acquired by Google), Thompson Reuters (where he was Managing Director of Reuter News in Singapore of all places), and he even tried his hand as a New Your City restauranteur!
Eventually, all these roads lead him to found GrowthX, a venture capital fund dedicated to helping founders find product market fit and get investment ready for their Series A.
As you will hear, Andrew’s earned wisdom both as a lawyer and as a venture capitalist makes him an ideal guest for this show. Our conversation covers:
Andrew’s journey from law to venture capital;
Insights for lawyers working with startups (especially those lawyers who are risk averse);
How the path to finding “product-market fit” is actually a formula; and
Why “move fast and break things” is often the worst advice a founder can receive.
Whether you are a lawyer, startup general counsel, investor, or simply someone interested in learning how to grow a startup, Andrew drops plenty of “truth bombs” (a reference you will soon understand) that you won’t want to miss!
It was a pleasure having Andrew on the podcast and I hope you get as much out of this conversation as I know I did.
For more on Andrew, follow him on LinkedIn, and be sure to check out GrowthX. Links as always in the show notes.
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