It is Tuesday and that means a new episode of ‘Panic With Friends‘ podcast. This week I asked my friend Heather Hartnett to be my guest. I love how she is thinking about the Future of Work.

Profile: CEO and Founding Partner of Human Ventures

Fun Fact: Heather has been meditating since a young age. She applied her knowledge and passion for this practice when she moved to New York 10 years ago to open a new office for the David Lynch Foundation, which brings meditation to inner city schools.

What’s the Panic About:

While the whole ethos of this podcast revolves around panic, the beauty of Heather is that there’s no panic in her. Considering the current pandemic, of course everyone is panicking; but that panic is only cool when you’re the only one doing it. What I’m trying to say is: Heather Hartnett is cool. She is foxhole smart, creative, resilient, and knows how to get shit done — and she’s doing it all in a male-dominated industry. Heather and I have been long-time friends and I am also an investor in her company Human Ventures. In this episode, we got to talk about her background growing up in a family of entrepreneurs, her time working with filmmaker David Lynch, transcendental meditation, her company’s unique business model, what makes a founder worth investing in, what trends to expect in the next five years, and more. Clearly we were not short in topics.

The Takeaway:

In this post-COVID economy, everything is changing. The goal of investing continues to shift from “nice to haves” to “need to haves.” The way we grow and look at business and investing is becoming more personal, more human, and more intentional. There is power in reframing your perspective from utilizing your network to amplifying your community. And Heather is really at the forefront of all of this.

Favorite Quotes:

“The venture industry is kind of like the dentist industry, you gotta sell the pain.”

“If you invest in a group of founders who want to help each other, it’s 1 + 1 = 10. You’re investing in a portfolio that’s amplified.”

“The new high rises are low rises. It’s really about these networks.”

Food for Thought:

One of the topics touched on this episode was looking at what’s beyond your resume. How are you showing your full self between those lines? And how are you connecting with people outside of just sending an invite on LinkedIn?

I will likely give this whole meditation thing another shot. As for connecting with people in a unique way? Maybe I’ll set up the podcast in Time Square and just see what happens.

I think you will really enjoy this podcast with Heather.

Thanks for listening and make sure you subscribe over on Spotify or Apple to get alerts as Knut and I drop two new episodes each week.