Todd Merrill:

Hi, welcome to Tales from the Sky Lounge. It’s a podcast about business, consulting, and venture investing. We get out there in the world and we talk to people who are making it happen and we get their stories.

And today’s guest in the Sky Lounge, Lisa Calhoun. Hi, Lisa.

Lisa Calhoun:

Hey, Todd. Great to be with you.

Todd Merrill:

Yeah, welcome to Sky Lounge. Lisa, who are you and what are you working on these days?

Lisa Calhoun:

So, I’m the managing partner of Valor Ventures. We’re an Atlanta-based venture capital firm that does one thing. We lead seed rounds across the South. And we just launched our third fund and we are already putting that capital into the ground. We’ve led three deals in the last quarter and we’re looking forward to an incredible 2025.

Todd Merrill:

Wow! A seed investor that’s writing checks. That’s awesome, especially in the South. Yeah, that’s awesome. So, one thing I read in your background, you mentioned that you’re a fourth-generation entrepreneur. So, that’s kind of interesting to me.

My family is always starting businesses. My grandpa was like a business lawyer and he’s got a folder full of worthless stock from all these little companies he touched and helped through the years. So, what’s it like growing up as a fourth-generation entrepreneur in that kind of family?

Lisa Calhoun:

Well, I thought I had the raw end of the stick, but honestly, I’m so grateful and thankful for my childhood. I was raised in my parents’ business, which was literally in our backyard in a cinder block structure that my grandfather and my father built. And I was running around with collies and dogs and getting in the way. But it was a commercial print business and we served banks. And so my typical middle school and early high school years were getting off school every Friday and doing sales calls and deliveries. We did them both at the same time with my father.

And of course, after school, I worked in the business.

Todd Merrill:

Wow!

Lisa Calhoun:

And so I developed an endurance, a stamina, and a sense of what worked in the B2B space, almost with my DNA. Then the other huge benefit of being raised in a business like that is I saw, and I’m going to date myself here, the microcomputer revolution.

Todd Merrill:

Yeah

Lisa Calhoun:

Because back in the day when I was raised, there were vacuum tube computers doing most of the large lift. And in the print shop, I actually got to work on the very first minicomputers, like the Mac mini. And so my first computer was the size of a dining room table. It was called a . And by the time I was graduating high school, I was working on QuarkXPress and Publisher and Ventura Pro, and this little tiny. And then, of course, they were so expensive, we had to build them.

So, imagine me at 16 on the kitchen counter with my brother, a year younger, soldering in GPUs and RAM, messing things up, diving into Computer Shopper for how-tos. So, we got to see the whole computer revolution from a … this is just the chores at home, perspective. And then going back, my grandmothers and my grandfathers, they were also in business. So for them, they weren’t listening to any sad stories about how hard it was that I had a job and a school life. My great-grandmother, her mother, so my great-great-grandmother actually ran a stagecoach in South Dakota.

Todd Merrill:

Wow! Yeah.

Lisa Calhoun:

And so her idea of a hard day and my idea of a hard day, I mean, it just, the stories that ran in our family about just get up and get on with it and get her done. It’s really stood me in good stead and made me feel a certain resilience that I think people who don’t have that entrepreneurial perspective, it’s not as native to them. And you share that background too, right, Todd? I mean, you’re an entrepreneurial family.

Todd Merrill:

Yeah. Yeah. “Hey, Dad, can I go buy a tennis racket?” “Well, you can go work at the Dairy Queen all you want.” All right. Oh, by the way, you’re working Saturday.

Lisa Calhoun:

Yeah

Todd Merrill:

And cut the grass and change the sign and stock the shelves and yeah, for sure. So, you hit on a couple of interesting things. We talk about cultural items in the people skills of technology, which are, you know, very translatable to lots of businesses. It sounds like grit is something you learned or had ingrained in you. Grandma is not taking your junk about having to ride your bike somewhere. She had to drive the mule train in the snow in Fargo, both ways uphill, right? But grit and determination in startups.

Lisa Calhoun:

Yes, absolutely. And you know, Deadwood actually is where the stagecoach originated and came back to. And so that’s become a whole series. But back in her day, it was nothing, nothing really. I think it’s been pretty dramatized.

Todd Merrill:

Just Tuesday. Yeah.

Lisa Calhoun:

What’s really grit, but also the idea that money is something that you can access and make for yourself, that you don’t have to ask for it. You can create it out of nothing. You can create something of value that people will buy. That is a superpower. And I didn’t realize the superpower being bestowed on me, but I’ve come to appreciate it and I’m really grateful for the background that I come from.

Todd Merrill:

So did, you know, that’s one of the things that people say is in entrepreneur families, you talk about money, you know, not obsessively, but it’s just a thing. It’s like a resource. And then you just move around and use it as a tool and you learn, you know, that it’s not good. It’s not bad. It’s just a thing. And it’s not, you know, you have to talk about it and address it. There’s some family, it shocked me that there are some families that don’t ever talk about money. Don’t talk about it. We don’t talk about what we earn. And then the idea that, you know, some families, you go get a job, you get money. That’s your salary. It’s finite. There’s a pie. Right? And then entrepreneur mindsets kind of like, hmm, I think I would go start something, you know, where, how am I going to put together the resources, money included, but you know, people and materials and the project plan and who do I know? So, it’s all part of a just a way of kind of living, you know, getting things together.

Lisa Calhoun:

Hearing no and not being discouraged. Now, no is discouraging. Okay. I’m human, too. And I still hear no. That’s, human. 

Todd Merrill:

Sure

Lisa Calhoun:

But when you’re 15, 16, 17, and part of your daily chores, so to speak, is knocking door to door on businesses to sell them commercial printing, I heard a lot of no’s and I realized it’s just part of life and it doesn’t feel good. It never does. But it’s not a personal rejection. It’s that your product doesn’t meet their needs. “Hmm. What are they looking for?”

Todd Merrill:

Yeah

Lisa Calhoun:

So that also is a great part of my upbringing.

Todd Merrill:

Product market fit. And I have a lot of conversations with a lot of people. And then it sounds like relationships. You learn that value early. You know, I think every, one of the best things you can do as an entrepreneur is grow up in a small town, and understand that you’re going to have to talk to everybody again next week, no matter what. Right? And you act a lot differently. Maybe in a large city where you can kind of sort of be an anonymous jerk sometimes. But I think, you know, growing up in a community where you have to talk to the same people over and over and over again, you kind of learn the art of relationships in business.

Lisa Calhoun:

That’s a great point. That’s a great point, Todd.

Todd Merrill:

Okay. Well, so at Valor, kudos to you. I read that you won Investor of The Year last year. So congratulations on that.

Lisa Calhoun:

Thank you.

Todd Merrill:

You must be very good at investing. So what do you think, goes into an award like that, you know, and what makes a great investment from a fund point of view?

Lisa Calhoun:

Well, I am definitely humbled and honored by Startup Atlanta for honoring me with that recognition. And what I think about in investing is also adding value and relationships, touching on some of those points. So, in the conversation, for example, I had just before ours here today, I was talking with a brilliant founding team, building AI in commercial real estate transactions, and trying to add value to that conversation. You know, it was an early conversation and neither they nor I know if Valor is the right seed lead investor for them. But what I do know is that I can try to add value where they are about what I know about building and scaling an early-stage transformational B2B product. And that hopefully engenders enough sense of relationship and true value that they may, if I extended a term sheet, look very favorably upon it and we’d be able to go into business together as partners. And so that attitude really extends into how I see a great investment. It’s very much a partnership, a first-time CEO. I’m looking to them to be the visionary leader of something that can go to over a billion in value or maybe IPO and certainly transform their industry.

So, there’s so much about that that I respect and enjoy working alongside. But from their point of view, I feel like one of the things, the standards they need to hold a VC up to is can this partner help coach and support me and add value beyond the money to my journey from C to Series A and beyond, and how are they going to do that and what strings are they pulling on? I think too often, VC, especially early stages looked at as transactional and while it is a transaction, it’s actually fundamentally relational because if you got the money without the coaching and network, you will not be in as good a position as the startup who very thoughtfully got the money, but then also bolted on networks, playbooks, and relationships that are there for them on good days and bad days alike.

Todd Merrill:

Yep, for sure. I started a couple of companies along the way and there’s a smart money concept….

Lisa Calhoun:

…right

Todd Merrill:

But don’t take money from banks, take money from people who are going to help you and be your partner and help you grow and help introduce you to the people that you need to meet along your way, along the growth curve. It sounds like what you all are looking to do, right? You get up in the morning and this is awesome, how can I go help this entrepreneur? You probably, like me, you think about, “Oh man, I need to make this phone call and that introduction, and here’s a little tidbit I can throw out there.”

Lisa Calhoun:

Oh, if I don’t make several phone calls, introductions, WhatsApps, you name it, a day, I am not doing my job. But we’re really focused, I will say that for the entrepreneurs listening, Valor, I’m proud of the firm. I know we’re really great at what we do, but what we do is crazy specific. We lead seed rounds in B2B only.

Todd Merrill:

Yeah

Lisa Calhoun:

AI and SaaS startups only, and we limit our geography so that we’re not spread too thin. Even though Valor, thank goodness, is a much larger team than myself and we have over a dozen post-exit founders that also our founders can rely on. There’s nothing like a personal relationship with your VC in those first 12 to 18 months as you’re really going from zero to hero.

A lot of the later rounds are a little bit more spreadsheet-driven and a little bit more transactional. But that first round, we really want to be present as a community of courage across the Valor Network, but also in that board seat. And so we really drill down. There are only certain types of startups that we would be great for, and we try to really limit who we’re speaking with so that we add value, we can add value with our network connections and experience.

Todd Merrill:

So, you don’t want to get into a company where you go, “Man, I have no idea how to run a restaurant or do a plumbing service. Just never done it before.” Right?

Lisa Calhoun:

We just don’t put in, if the founder is building in an area where we don’t have multiple reps of going to a significant scale with a software company in that industry, it’s not the right one for Valor to lead.

Todd Merrill:

Sure

Lisa Calhoun:

And at this point, with over 30 companies in our portfolio, and prior to that, both of our general partners, myself and Gary Peat, bringing 50 to 100 experiences each of major scale, IPOs, major acquisitions. So, we do have certain patterns that we’re matching for, and it’s not that we think that’s the only way, it’s just our experience allows us to really grease the skids of companies that are in our back sack.

Todd Merrill:

I mentor a lot of young companies, a lot of them are in Atlanta, some of them are not. And they always ask, oh, you know, everybody’s read the books and watched the Netflix series. You know, money is easy, you have a napkin, you have an idea, people cut checks tomorrow, and you’re in business. Well, that’s not exactly how the world works. I don’t think it ever worked that way, but certainly not today. So how early do you like to meet the idea? Let’s talk about an ideal deal. Typically, how early do you like to meet them? Hey, I got an idea, maybe a little bit further along than that, probably. And then what do you like to do before you write a check? There are probably a couple of touchpoints, maybe what’s your thought process and what’s an ideal deal look like?

Lisa Calhoun:

Not every founder wants to build a company that has a billion in revenue, is an IPO contender, and is transforming their industry. And you know what? We were just talking about how I grew up in the commercial print shop of my parents. They didn’t have that ambition, and that’s okay. So, I think what’s really important to know is that not all founders should even ever look at venture because venture is the hardest, most difficult, most vulture-like money you will ever take. So first off, does your dream have a certain scale that you should raise venture for it because it really can be a fast, quick scale, if properly financed, networked, distributed, right channel partners, and all those things. So already some founders are listening to this and going, what? Ah, great.

You know, that’s absolutely fantastic because that’s just one way of building wealth. So, we’re super focused on companies that can scale and become multinational, if not global leaders in what they do. So that means that they have some competitors perhaps, but not a lot. And so we call it looking for transformational innovation, not incremental innovation. So, a software company that’s being built that ekes out another 15 to 20% on what the market currently can deliver could be a great business. But it doesn’t really come on board in that business model with venture scale. Something that is Bluesky hasn’t been done before. Oh, my goodness. Well, immediately it’s high risk, right? Who knows if it can be done like that? That potentially though, when it’s software, especially when it’s AI-driven, that could be venture scale. And so what we’re in the business of doing is trying to find those potential huge winners. Many of them will fail. We know that going in, but some of them will reset their industry’s clocks because the way they’re doing it is not just 15 or 20 or 30% better, it’s like a hundred times better than it’s ever been thought of before. And that is always fun.

Todd Merrill:

Yeah

Lisa Calhoun:

So, with those founders, banks won’t loan to them. A lot of times there are limited resources to scale what you’re building. And even though AI has driven down the cost even further of starting a great software firm, it’s still expensive to get to that first 1 million ARR. And you have to generally build out a little bit ahead of sales. And that is venture’s opportunity. And that’s Valor’s opportunity when we find founders we can back.

Todd Merrill:

So, I know there are a ton of people that love that million-dollar ARR benchmark, right? Because you’ve de-risked a lot of stuff. You can build it. You can sell it. You built the team or at least part of the team, most of the team, the early team, you know, and then a lot of people will jump in at that point. Do you all like to try to get ahead of that? I think you could. Yeah.

Lisa Calhoun:

Oh yeah, absolutely. So, our funnel starts at conception or at the idea stage. So, you know, it conceptually venture is just like any other business. We have a funnel too. And in our funnel, there are founders and businesses. And so having done this for seven years, you know, we use Salesforce and we use a full-time team of people who source great companies at the embryonic, even idea stage. So, the biggest funnel for us in that regard is a program we started six years ago called Startup Runway.

Todd Merrill:

Okay

Lisa Calhoun:

Startup Runway has become so successful as a program on its own. Founders who have gone through it have raised a hundred million and counting. And it’s backed by some great local leaders like Cox Enterprises, Georgia Power, and the NCR Foundation.

Todd Merrill:

Okay

Lisa Calhoun:

So, we cast that off as a nonprofit that gives away $10,000 grants. But what we’re looking for through it is some of the best of the best at the idea stage. That’s one way that we look for founders. And so through that, we’ll see thousands of founders. Other, you know, we have two full-time people sourcing founders. And of course, our team, including our venture partner team of 11 post-exit entrepreneurs, myself, my partners, we all have our own networks. You know, you mentioned, as we were talking about the setup for this, I used to be in EO. I’m in the Kauffman Fellows Program. So basically, we’re networking on all channels to bring 30 to 40 new startups into Valor’s pipeline every week.

Todd Merrill:

Week! Wow!

Lisa Calhoun:

Yes, absolutely. Yes. And it is tracked in Salesforce. I get a weekly report, graphs, and charts. I mean, we track everything from the top of the funnel to the conversion of the funnel to the first meeting, conversion of the funnel to partner interest, conversion of the funnel to the term sheet, and time to the term sheet. These types of metrics really help us run our business well and see where we might be missing opportunities. And of course, you know, we’re only looking in the South. So, you know, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, the true south is where Valor invests.

Todd Merrill:

So you said EO, I’d love to, you know, that’s an interesting organization. You know, I was involved with ATDC at one point. I know Dave Cummings has got a nice thing going on there. At LandTech Village, you know, there’s a lot of interesting incubators and community support. What is it about EO that gets you excited in other organizations like EO?

Lisa Calhoun:

20 years ago, when I built my first business to over a million dollars in revenue, I didn’t know what I didn’t know, and that’s true of all of us, right? So going back 20 years, one of my customers actually said, “You know, this is going pretty well, what you’re doing here. Do you know there’s a network of entrepreneurs that are all post a million, you know, trying to get to 10, trying to get to a hundred? I think you should join me for one of our events. Just see what you think.” Well, I loved it.

By 2012, I was elected president of the Atlanta Chapter of EO, which is one of the biggest chapters in the country. And through that have made and some of the best relationships of my entire life. You know, there’s a peer learning called forum, the love forum. I was in it for almost a decade. Now I haven’t been in EO for several years. I sort of aged out in terms of business size, scale, and sector, but I highly recommend it for founders who are looking for a peer network. And since then I’ve double-clicked on that peer network learning and a few years ago, when I started Valor, I applied to the Kauffman Fellows Organization, which is a similar peer learning organization, but for VCs.

Todd Merrill:

Okay

Lisa Calhoun:

And have had a similar experience. I mean, I am in constant contact with over 600, many first-class VCs across the world from firms whose names, you know, about everything from capital call lines of credit to the best resources in the market. And of course, sharing deals and syndicating opportunities.

Todd Merrill:

Yeah. So, I kind of be remiss on my host duties if I didn’t ask you about the state of venture in your mind, if you’re talking to all these other high flyers, certainly some of the, you know, there’s a bell curve of people that are successful and not so successful. You know, and then the Warren Buffett quote is, you know, when the recessions happen, you know, the tide goes out, you get to see you swimming naked.

I feel like that’s one of these movements now where the really good discipline, operators, execution-oriented, funds are really, really going to make a name for themselves and differentiate. And then the ones that are kind of sloppy and just rely on a bull market, you know, throwing darts are going to get kind of, you know, reset is maybe a polite way to set. What, you know, it feels like, you know, post Silicon Valley Bank, was at two years now? The venture community has kind of been holding their breath. It hasn’t been as much activity. I feel like from my business, I’ve seen a lot early, a lot of stuff starting up. There’s a lot of talent on the street for sure. And I think private equity kind of came down and started making deals and they slowed down because they are, I don’t think they are as into the growth play as the venture, but the venture is kind of, I’m not sure what’s going on there. What do you think is going on or what’s kind of your outlook? You know?

Lisa Calhoun:

So, Todd, the numbers tell a really clear story. And actually, it’s just one that the media doesn’t like and VCs don’t like. And so you don’t really see it in the media. So I’m glad you brought it up. Last year and the year before we’re really venture winter. And if we look at just last year and look at information from PitchBook and Carta, 75% of all the venture capital raised went to just a few firms.

Todd Merrill:

Yeah. The tippy tip.

Lisa Calhoun:

Like, you can count them on both hands.

Todd Merrill:

Yeah.

Lisa Calhoun:

Right. And so what does that mean? Well, it means among the younger firms, the firms that tend to back at seed, you know, like you, you know, you started our conversation with, oh my goodness, a CVC writing checks. You know, I don’t think I laughed because in a way it wasn’t funny because I have survivor guilt because last year, a good 40% of smaller funds closed their doors and shuttered. And the first 10 or 12 made a few headlines and then it became so normal. And of course, when venture closes its doors, it doesn’t look like other businesses where you can’t reach them. They have prior funds that they have to operate out. And a lot of those have, of course, 10, 12-year horizons. And so the firm has a skeleton in place to manage existing investments in a way to the outside world that looks like that brand still exists. But actually, it doesn’t.

Todd Merrill:

Zombie. Yeah.

Lisa Calhoun:

And so, I am really grateful that Valor was able to work through and found the visionary investors that wanted to back our strategy again, many returning LPs. And our third fund is actually 18% larger than our prime fund. I know, no, it’s really … I am so grateful. And I also so feel the pain of many of my peers who are not in that position. And so it’s a bittersweet. Yes, of course, it’s more sweet than bitter for me, but it is honestly, to your point, so much talent out on the market. And what’s also interesting, of course, is that this correlates, our new fund correlates with a time where there’s more opportunity to invest in venture than there has been in probably 20 years because of AI and the true seismic shift that is going on in technology. So, if you’re not exposed to the venture market today, it’s a really, I would say, poor decision because venture is actually making groundbreaking investments in an entirely new schema of technology. It’s a really exciting time to be putting capital to work.

Todd Merrill:

It was a thought I had. So, I was around, you know, before the internet, literally, and, but, you know, the telecom boom. I was there for that. And then you had to go buy a bunch of Sun pizza boxes, you know, for a hundred thousand, you know, just to get the compute and then in like, cloud change all that. Right? So, literally, you can sign up right now for free and get, you know, as many computers as you need to get going for nothing, nothing. And Azure is the same way, GCP. But it kind of raised the bar for, okay, well, you need to get a lot done. Now, you know, I think AI is kind of one of those, it’s another, it feels like another quantum leap where people are now going, well, why can’t you get more done? Like a million AR is really not that hard, you know, because you can, you’ve got all these tools, you can go to market and, you know.

Lisa Calhoun:

Well, you know, you’re absolutely right. Compute used to be the expensive constrained resource. And that was really fundamental to the start of my industry, venture capital. So in the last few years, the constrained resource has been coding, getting lines of quality code, enterprise code written. That constraint is effectively gone for those coding architects who know how to deploy AI. So, you know, in our portfolio, what we prefer to see is rather than hire two or three junior developers, which are also human beings that have to be managed the way human beings do with a lot of care, attention, feeding, personal development, I mean, that’s just normal. We’ll hire Devin and have multiple instances of basic AI coding running. Now that takes a complete … this is a fundamental shift in how software is built, but coding per se is absolutely no longer the constrained resource that it was even this time last year. And so you got really freeze the product visionaries out there that are technical enough to understand AI, to build, build, build.

Todd Merrill:

Yeah.

Lisa Calhoun:

And it’s, it’s breathtaking. Some of the things we get to see.

Todd Merrill:

Yeah. Debugging your ML model anymore. You’re just coding and then let’s see the results and iterate quickly.

Lisa Calhoun:

It goes beyond that. Let me give you a real-world example, a fairly straightforward one. A lot of people who work in the software world are familiar with trouble tickets, bug tickets, JIRA tickets, those sorts of things. This is a perfect use case for running Devin against your JIRA. I mean, Devin is capable of checking Azure code to your standards, running the trouble ticket, submitting new code, going through whatever QA process you want to handle, and rechecking that code into production. That is a game-changer. That alone. And that’s just, I could go on and on and on. I mean, if this kind of thing pleases you, you should check out Valor’s blog and also the blog of our AI-lead developer Jean-Luc Van Hulst on Medium.

We are seeing talent bring so many different ways of building with AI. That’s not even necessarily an AI company, just AI in the backend, accelerating the growth so that you have a smaller, tighter team of people that really enjoy working together. Facilitated, augmented, and accelerated by unbelievable tools. It’s truly magic.

Todd Merrill:

I think that’s very true. And, you know, I was talking to a buddy over, you know, ACG was in town. So ran into some old folks that I hadn’t talked to in a minute, but, you know, the people who are mid or later career that have been there, the architect, kind of knows what to build, can leverage the heck out of AI and not need that junior, you know, crunch or and then, okay, great. That’s awesome that a mid-career, late-career person can leverage the heck out of lots of different things. You know, start a business, you can code and market and maybe sell with all these automations. But what happens, you know, where the junior people start, you know, it gets a little harder, right? And that was kind of, we were all scratching our heads on that one. I don’t know. If you have any thoughts on that, you know.

Lisa Calhoun:

Definitely. And so I would say that some of our best engineers across the portfolio, they aren’t necessarily older. I mean, there are some that are late 50s, early 60s and doing amazing with AI because they understand the structure of code so well that they’re in a perfect position. So, you’re absolutely right. And that’s very frequent and it’s an exciting time. But we also see very young developers who have a great background in the structure and architecture of code and have worked in several languages already because they’ve been doing it since they were kids. And they’re also very facile and in fact, have more of an instant-on, instant gratification mindset. And so, I mean, sure, there’s a lot of slop and spaghetti code, but that has always been true. I mean, when I worked in IT departments 15, 16 years ago, I can remember how the Java people looked down on the JavaScript people. And it’s just, that’s always been a part of the reality of the coding world. It’s a little bit different now. What’s different now is AI can accelerate your transformation from an okay coder to an architect because you can actually get co-piloting and feedback and see beautiful structures. Whereas before, if you were a junior coder and you didn’t have a mentor, you’re flying a little bit blind, you know, digging into your Reddit, trying to find the right peer groups. But now, you can actually see things in a much cleaner way or write your sketch and then see the code commented up beautifully. You can accelerate yourself faster too, I guess is what I’m trying to say. And I see a lot of people taking advantage of that.

Todd Merrill:

Yeah. Well, yeah. And then if you’re newer, you just don’t know what you’re doing, you may as well grab on the latest technology and go fast, right?

Lisa Calhoun:

Yeah

Todd Merrill:

Everybody likes to go fast when you’re young, for sure. Well, so talking about young people. So, my sons, you know, they’re not going to go into tech, you know, they’re young adults now and they’re just going a different way. But my nieces are up and coming and like, I’ve got twin nieces in LaGrange, South of Atlanta. You know, and one of them is kind of over the old, you know, the traditional summer camp. You know, she’s ready to go do something more meaningful with her life. So, what would you say to her? You know, she wants to come to Atlanta, plug in with something cool. You know, what is that or what should she be looking at as an early high school person that’s coming up in the world, trying to figure it all out?

Lisa Calhoun:

Well, I think that you know, first thing, definitely at that age, get broad exposure to a little bit of everything so that you actually have a scope to know what you like. And so rather than dive deep at such a young age, I would encourage her to go broad, you know, try all kinds of sports, try all kinds of ways of building relationships, get involved in a language or two, see the world a little bit if you can. And let that fuel you, let that breath fuel you for what you truly might fall in love with later in your life. And, you know, to the extent that you can get involved with managing your own budget, investing, even just at a micro-scale, using things like Robin Hood, becoming facile with technology and all of your different facets of enjoyment, do that as a personal accelerator. There are certainly age-appropriate moments to get into different levels of technology. But one of the beauties of AI is it’s … the generative AI can often speak to the level at which it’s spoken to. And I think that the AI is for the 13, 14-year-old of today, like what the internet was to me as I was entering college in the early 90s.

Todd Merrill:

Yeah, yeah. Very cool. Well, Lisa, it’s all about travel and getting out there in the world. You got any great travel stories that you’d like to share with us?

Lisa Calhoun:

I do, but that might be not on a podcast.

Todd Merrill:

Ha ha ha!

Lisa Calhoun:

I know you encouraged me to talk about memorable airports, and I think I would love to share that one of the most memorable airports for me was one of the first I got to see. You know, you mentioned the LaGrange, Georgia. It’s been a minute, but I was raised in Roberta, Georgia.

Todd Merrill:

Okay

Lisa Calhoun:

So, I was raised in a very small town. And so my first city and I can’t even believe this is true, but it is true, and it probably twisted me for good for a long time, was Moscow.

Todd Merrill:

Oh!

Lisa Calhoun:

And so my first big airport was Sheremetyevo. And I got the opportunity to fly in and out of that a few times when I was younger, college-age and just afterward. And then getting the opportunity to study abroad at the Pushkin Institute in Moscow really helped shape my view of how different the world can be from what you’re used to. I found, of course, at that time in life, absolutely inspiring and energizing, and isn’t that what travel is so good at is opening the eyes. But that’s one of my more interesting travel stories.

Of course, it was back at a time when there were no cell phones. I couldn’t call home. I was really very much on my own. And being dropped into something so foreign was really exciting. And I always like to encourage people, especially young people to get way outside of your comfort zone because you’re going to find that it’s great. You know. You’ll probably be swimming, and then it’ll become your comfort zone.

Todd Merrill:

Very cool. Well, Lisa, it’s been great having you here in the Sky Lounge. How can everybody get in touch with you on the internet if they want to follow up after this?

Lisa Calhoun:

Todd, thank you for asking. I am fairly quiet on most social networks, except LinkedIn. So, LinkedIn is a great place to reach out to me at. And I am a frequent blogger. So, these days, AI is moving at such a fast pace. I try to put out helpful tips. When I condense something that’s working for a couple dozen startups, I try to turn that into a blog. And it might not be the most beautiful literature, but I’ll post it at Valor.vc. And then the other way to really connect with me is definitely through events. So, Valor has a pretty substantial event calendar, and it’s always available at valor.vc/events. I’m at those events, and I would love to meet people who want to talk about building transformational AI and software companies.

Todd Merrill:

Very cool. Well, thanks, Lisa. It’s been great having you. And bye for now.

Lisa Calhoun:

Bye. Thanks for the great conversation, Todd.