Welcome back to Being Invested, where we explore the personal stories of the people who make the markets. This is a holiday treat … taking us to snowy peaks and flying through a fascinating career from top-level skiing to the prizes of early-stage business building. My guest for this episode is Andrew Noble, our first Olympic athlete on the  podcast. Andrew was an Alpine skiier for Team GB who has converted the agility, risk-tolerance and mental sharpness needed to fly through the gates into a successful career in venture capital investing, with a focus on Scotland and the north of England. In this many-layered episode, we explore how the resilience learned from coming back after serious injury helped him turn what could have been setbacks in his career trajectory into springboards, what technique he uses to perform under pressure, how emotion influences venture investing and more. I hope you enjoy it, and thank you for your support for the launch of Being Invested in 2023. I’ll be back in the New Year with more brilliant guests. Wishing you health, happiness and prosperity in 2024, and success in the ways that you find to Be Invested in your life.

WHAT'S IN STORE

·       “There was certainly a lot of time to think about things when you break your back.”

·       “Attitude towards risk, risk tolerance, risk measurement in your inner state is so fascinating - and what life events determine that.”

·       “One trick that I did take away from professional sport was the ability to reset one's mind. So quite often when you're standing at the top of a race, you feel that build up of nervousness and energy. And you need to be centered before you throw yourself down a mountain and try and compete with some of the best skiers."

·       “It was a big learning curve for me in terms of aligning my own ambitions with my moral compass.”

·       “It's roughly seven touch points until someone feels comfortable buying your product, it takes a long time.”

·       “It's easy to deploy capital, it's much harder to get it back, and it's even harder to know how to manage that follow on position. … You've originally backed that company, that strategy, that management team, and so sometimes you're at odds with yourself, because by saying no to the follow-on round, you're really saying that you got it wrong.”

PAR EQUITY

https://www.parequity.com

FAVOURITES

Music: Elton John (moving up in the Being Invested charts!)

Film: Interstellar and other Christopher Nolan films

Quote: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal.”

Podcast: The Rest is Politics

Comedians: Billy Connolly, Kevin Bridges, and the Monty Python Gang

GRATITUDE

Sound: Alexander Russell, Design: Sophie Hardy, Music: Tom McKean

I'd love your feedback, and if you'd like to suggest a guest, please message me on LinkedIn.

Happy holidays! 

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