Thursday, December 27, 2018
Reflections on 2018: Clinton Foy, CrossCut Ventures
Editor's note: All this week, and into the start of next year, we'll be featuring reflections on 2018 from notable investors, entrepreneurs, and others from Southern California's technology community. You'll be able to browse all of those contributions here. Here, we have the thoughts of Clinton Foy, General Partner and Managing Director of Crosscut Ventures (www.crosscut.vc).
What was the biggest lesson you learned this year?
Venture Capital is a Long Term Game. In business I learned how critical it is to pick your partners, founders, and relationships carefully because you will be with them for years and possibly for decades. We need to think long term, and always learn, grow, and improve. That growth mindset is something I've been working on everyday in what I read, the meetings I take, and how present I am in everything I do. Personally, I've been meditating and exercising on and off for the last thirty years with training at a Zen monastery in Japan and jumping into a few marathons. But this is the first year I made a concerted effort to make meditation, running, and yoga a consistent part of my everyday practice. It's as important as eating and sleeping for me and I definitely feel the difference in focus, presence and in my relationships. In past years I always thought I never had enough time for meditation and exercise. That was a lame excuse. I've found that it helps to schedule it, socialize it with your business partners and family and make meditation and exercise a priority. Health is the new wealth and you'd be surprised at how supportive your colleagues, friends, and family are in helping you. Mental health and physical health, I've discovered, also spreads like a virus at work and home; the more you and the people around you practice it, talk about it and make it a part of your lives, the more it thrives.
What was the biggest news for your company in 2018?
Crosscut Ventures celebrated our 10th year anniversary in 2018 and that came with a lot of change. When I first joined Crosscut Ventures five years ago, the firm had $20 million under management and was just starting to invest out of its second fund. We now have $250 million under management, are investing out of our fourth fund and have made more than 80 investments. Thinking long-term has gotten us here, even though a lot of the change has happened more recently. This year, we focused on diversifying and strengthening our team by recruiting Maureen Klewicki as an investor and senior associate, and Nick Kim as our head of platform. We moved from our loft in Venice to a new tech campus in Santa Monica. We've always known how important it is as VCs to invest in founders. Now, we're investing in our own team, firm, and platform so we can further support those founders.
Are there any technology innovations, gadgets, devices, software, that you found most interesting in 2018?
My interests are eclectic and range from SpaceX and innovations in aerospace, transportation, robotics, autonomous vehicles, to esports, the future of work, and the future of entertainment. Personally, my work has shifted 80 percent to my mobile device for work communication, text, email and reading. I'm fascinated by the creator economy on Twitch, Youtube, and new streaming platforms.
Finally, what's your prediction on what will be the most important thing for the technology industry in the coming year?
Liquidity and transfer of wealth. IPOs for Uber, Lyft, AirBnB and other high flying startups will infuse the tech ecosystem with more entrepreneurs, founders, and capital to catalyze a new generation of startups. We're already seeing strong engineers and founders from Snap, Riot Games, Musically and others launch their new startups in LA. We're building a startup ecosystem where more great founders and engineers move to Southern California, and Crosscut is here to support them.
Clinton Foy joined CrossCut Ventures (www.crosscut.vc) in 2013 and is a General Partner and Managing Director. Clinton also co-founded the professional esports organization, the Immortals and the LA Valiant. Prior to CrossCut, Clinton served as the COO at Square Enix, a $3 billion video game and media publisher. Clinton also practiced law with the Heller Ehrman Venture Law Group in Seattle, San Francisco, and Silicon Valley, representing top tech companies including Microsoft, Sony, and Yahoo. Clinton earned a BA from the University of Notre Dame where he studied art history and philosophy, a JD from the University of Washington School of Law, and MA from Stanford University Graduate School. He grew up in Anchorage, Alaska and is a livelong traveler, runner, skier, and student of yoga and Zen.