E26: Justin Gordon: My Untraditional Path into Venture Capital

Justin Gordon is the director of marketing for Vitalize Venture Capital, a seed-stage venture fund. He hosts the Vitalize podcast, where he interviews founders.  He is also the founder of Just Go Grind, a supportive community and insightful podcast for ambitious founders. He is one of the best community builders on the internet and has 19K followers on Twitter (@justingordon212) 👉🏾In this episode, we talk about: [00:05] What do you do? What are you working on? [02:13] Justin’s early influences? How did reading books impact your success in getting you to this point? [03:30] Justin first learns about passive income. [04:50] What Justin Learned From Being an athlete. [06:10] Take action, starting with the things that you can control. [07:20] Where did your self belief come from? [08:53] Having positive encouragement and success at a young age. [11:10] Do you think part of your self belief was competitive instinct? [14:36 ] The power of listening to podcasts [15:30] When you are curious about something. Take action. [17:33] The danger of putting successful people on a pedestal [19:12 ] You must be willing to sacrifice everything to go after something. [24:28] Once you are in the game and the coach calls your number, you're in the game. You're not nervous anymore. [25:21] The hardest part is deciding, is this a business that should be ventured back? When do you stop trying? [26:49] Jeff Bezos regret minimization framework. [28:22] What does Justin want to do next? [31:42] Can you give more context around vitality? What's the thesis? How did you meet Gale? [39:47] Can you take me back to the origins of the podcast? [48:36] What is the power of building a strong work catalog? [52:45] What's something actionable listeners can do right now to capitalize on their interests? [55:16] The dots only connect looking backwards, never looking forwards. [57:08] How to make deep professional connections [01:02:12] Simplify because we overcomplicate things all the time.