Sheel Mohnot is quite possibly the world’s most interesting man. He’s a founding partner of Better Tomorrow Ventures and a general partner at 500 Fintech. He’s also the Zoom Bachelor, on the upcoming mini-season of The Zoom Bachelor, a fundraiser for racial justice. On top of all that, he also co-founded The Pitch, an incredibly successful podcast where real entrepreneurs pitch to real investors—for real money, AND he successfully co-founded Thistle, Innovative Auctions, and FeeFighters. There are tons of other extraordinary things where that came from, but now on to the interview…
Who is Sheel Mohnot and what is he working on?
- Sheel is a Fintech investor, building Better Tomorrow Ventures, a $60 million pre-seed & seed-stage fund
Choosing an area of expertise.
- Being a specialist makes more sense to Sheel as a VC, because he can help his portfolio companies more
- It also helps to narrow the field
- For choosing your own area of expertise, find what excites you and go from there – remember that it’s okay to take a meandering path
Thinking about career changes.
- Software building –> management consulting –> fintech nonprofit –> consulting –> startup –> investing
- When you’re open to saying yes to things, good things happen
Living on $2 a day.
- It doesn’t take a lot to make Sheel happy – he learned that what brings him joy is adventures and experiences
Googling as a skill.
- Doesn’t want to waste people’s time asking questions that can be answered by the internet
- Wants to be armed with as much information as possible
- Helps him not mislead people and makes it so that he doesn’t have to remember everything
Traveling in an RV.
- Loves to travel, but it’s difficult in 2020 due to COVID, so the RV was a natural next step
- Traveled without a plan and really enjoyed the experience
- Bought a bunch of RV stocks because he believes that everyone will be RVing this year
Perspective on thinking about the direction of your career.
- Always knew he wanted to be in business for himself but didn’t know what specifically
- When he finally learned what venture capital was he knew that was what he wanted to do
- Most people take a meandering path – kind of have to connect the dots looking backward
- It takes time – have fun and do what you love along the way
Thoughts on self-care.
- For Sheel, taking care of himself is getting outside, being active, and finding opportunities for adventure
- Has made getting into nature a priority during COVID – helps him find joy in his day and has been a good anti-depressant
Utilizing social media.
- Just recently started using Twitter and while he was skeptical of its helpfulness, it has been helpful for his career
- Think of it as a way to learn
- Follow him @Pitdesi on Twitter
