Are you being haunted by your to-do list? 👻 Plus, my October recap 🎃

Happy Halloween, newsletter fam!

As you read this, I hope you’re off somewhere unwrapping candy bars or sipping on a spooky cocktail compliments of all the Halloween-themed drink recipes on TikTok.

September and October were very busy for all of us, I’m sure. But one of the biggest things to come out of September for me was officially joining the Leadership team at VC Unleashed as a NYC Chapter Lead!

VC Unleashed is a non-profit with a mission to increase the BIPOC representation in VC. We host educational events throughout the year and happy hours and mixers across multiple U.S. cities, including San Francisco and NYC (hi, that’s my job!)

There are ✨3✨ perfect ways to stay updated on everything that’s happening at VC Unleashed (including local and virtual events), get access to job and internship opportunities, and more:

1️⃣ Join the VC Unleashed Slack Community here.

2️⃣ Follow VC Unleashed on Twitter and LinkedIn.

3️⃣ Follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter (I share VC events and opportunities, mostly on LinkedIn)

I hope we cross paths at some of our events or even in the wild on Twitter and LinkedIn!

Now here’s what I’ve been up to this past month…

OCTOBER RECAP

• I attended FinCon in New Orleans for the first time. FinCon is a multi-day personal finance conference (FYI, I’ve been a financial journalist for a few years now). Over the course of a week I met a ton of people in the personal finance and business space and even sourced Fintech startups through a pitch competition there.

• I got to meet my fellow VC Unleashed teammate Alejandro Muñoz Mendieta IRL when he flew up to NYC from Mexico for NY Tech Week. He and Andy Vargas (who I also met!) just launched their new fund No Border Ventures. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

• I launched my ✨NEW✨ podcast, Venture to the Top. This podcast harnesses the power of connection and conversation to highlight the experiences of investors and startup founders and to demystify the VC space. Subscribe and listen here. 🫶🏽

• I’ve been sourcing guests for my podcast and setting up intro calls (hint: if you or someone you know works in the VC/startup space and is interested in sharing their experiences, hmu on LinkedIn or at [email protected])

• VC Unleashed hosted a fantastic virtual panel on “Reflections on VC Recruiting” where they asked three people who recently got full-time VC roles to share their experiences with recruiting this year. Tori Orr, Eon Mattis, and Stephanie Wong were all so insightful (and I took copious notes!)

• I shared an update call with Michael Gao, the founder of an EdTech startup. We chatted through some of his ideas, the state of AI in the education space, and how to prepare for fundraising.

Are you being haunted by your to-do list?

Productivity and time management have been very top of mind for me as of late. I’m always seeking ways to master my time and accomplish more in what little spare time I have.

I think most people would agree with me that not ticking off all the little check boxes on their to-do list at the end of the week causes some stress. Especially when you’re a busy VC or startup founder with multiple pots to manage.

Then you get caught up in the self-sabotaging cycle of feeling bad that you weren’t able to do more, which dampens your mood and stifles the energy you have for next week’s to-do list.

Depending on which self-help books you may have read and enjoyed, you might have heard the advice to stop creating to-do lists altogether.

But I wanted to share one small tip that has been helping me make meaningful progress and create more mental space for nurturing other higher-lift tasks. I have just two words:

Act immediately.

If I know there’s something I can do that’ll take me less than five minutes, I try to act on it immediately. In many cases, these kinds of tasks don’t even touch my to-do list because I’ve made it a point to get them out of the way ASAP.

Often times, these types of tasks are simple—like reaching out to someone, filling out a really short application, replying to messages, sending a Calendly link—but they sometimes get put off. Completing them as soon as possible, no matter how small they may seem, gives me the freedom to tackle the bigger stuff without stressing over an overflowing to-do list.

So if you want to help yourself avoid any little tasks slipping through the cracks, try this tip out for yourself.

KEEP UP WITH ME

Are you a founder looking for an investor? Drop me a line and I’ll make an intro!

All you have to do is send an email to [email protected] telling me a bit about your startup and how much you’re raising. That’s it!

That’s all for right now. If you’re loving this newsletter, don’t forget to forward it to a friend who may also enjoy reading about my journey updates and learnings.

Catch you in the next one!

—Jasmin, Founder & EIC of Capital J