Brad Feld + Grid110

Austin Clements
2 min readAug 13, 2020

My introduction to venture capital came a little over a decade ago by way of a few active investors who were regularly blogging. Though at the time I didn’t know these investors personally, it’s safe to say their blogs were essential to me breaking into the industry. That’s where I learned the thought process, adopted the language, and realized that many of the skills required to be a successful VC overlapped with skills I previously developed working with small business entrepreneurs throughout my career. To this day, when I’m asked which VCs mentored me early on I usually cite Brad Feld as one of them, even though he didn’t know me at the time.

First time I met Brad was in 2012 in business school when he came to speak at NYU

Recently, Brad reached out to ask which of the initiatives I’m involved in could benefit from his time and a financial contribution from his foundation. Specifically, he wanted to do more work supporting Black entrepreneurs and investors in light of the awakening our country has experienced. Not only do I love how proactive he’s being about making a difference, it’s a full circle moment for me. A decade ago his blog opened up a pathway for me to invest in my community, now he’s directly supporting my efforts and helping to accelerate them. I strongly encourage you to read how Brad is supporting Grid110 South LA in Brad’s blog post here.

I am tremendously grateful for Brad’s contributions. Still, we need all the support we can get as we expand Grid110 to South LA. If you are interested in donating, please do so here. We also encourage everyone to sign up for Grid110’s newsletter as we have more announcements coming soon!

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