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.