Mamoon Hamid

I liked facts. So much so that I used to read encyclopedias and memorize the facts in them. One day in the mid 1980s I wished there would be a way to think of a fact and ask a computer to provide the answer, rather than flipping through hundreds of pages looking for the answer. I believed in the power of technology, but I didn’t expect the day to come so soon after I had that thought!nnI was also in a hurry. I skipped three years of school along the way and graduated college when I was 19. I have since learned to enjoy the journey rather than just focusing on the destination.

I grew up in a fairly traditional Pakistani home in Frankfurt, Germany. My father was a banker, and my mother gave up her career to raise four children. I grew up with three sisters—one older, two younger. I’m grateful for the years of being the sole brother made me the person who I am today. My views in life and work (especially in healthcare) are informed by my brilliant wife, who has forged new ground as a Physician and Entrepreneur. Together we’re trying to make our biggest daily investment a success — raising 4 children (3 girls and a boy).

I came to Silicon Valley as an engineer in 1997. It was in the middle of the first internet boom and I was getting exposed to all kinds of cool products and companies. I was buying books on Amazon and using Google to search the web. nnMany of the coolest products and impactful companies had VCs, and an in many cases Kleiner Perkins, behind them. As I studied the VCs behind these companies, many of the most successful ones turned out to be engineers turned venture investors, so I naively thought I could be one of them one day. I thought the job of investing in products and companies that could harness the power of technology for positive change in the world seemed like a good way to spend your working hours.

My role is to be the u0022blind-spotu0022 monitor, someone who helps at the earliest stages of a company, enabling founders to see things they don’t even know they are supposed to encounter. There is no job too small for me, once we’ve invested and made the pact to serve one of our companies.nnFounders don’t have time to waste, so I try to provide real-time feedback whether it is something big or small. Small things compounded get big quickly, so it’s important for startups to course correct in real-time.nn

I love the German notion that “we work so that we can live” (and not the other way around). So if we’re working already, why not work with great tools that get the job done and give us joy. This is a theme I’ve been a fan of for the past 15 years and led to investments in companies like Box, Yammer, Intercom, Slack, Figma, Glean and Coda.nnI also like to spend my time on investments that help us in our personal lives. Whether it is addressing our mental health with companies like Modern Health or Thrive Global or our physical health with companies like Future, there’s so much impact that technology enabled solutions can deliver for us to self-actualize.