VC Hype Playlist: What Emerging VCs Listen to Before Meetings
Confidence isn’t just a hack, it’s a superpower. In A Promised Land, President Barack Obama describes how he would use music to get himself charged up before any significant moment.
What was on his playlist? Jay-Z’s My First Song and Eminem’s Lose Yourself.
“Both were about defying the odds and putting it all on the line… how it felt to spin something out of nothing; getting by on wit, hustle, and fear disguised as bravado. The lyrics felt tailored to my early underdog status. And as I sat alone in the back of the Secret Service van on the way to a debate site, in my crisp uniform and dimpled tie, I’d nod my head to the beat of those songs, feeling a whiff of private rebellion, a connection to something grittier and more real than all the fuss and deference that now surrounded me. It was a way to cut through the artifice and remember who I was.”
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We (Siya & Akash) are early-stage venture capitalists and deeply resonate with those feelings as we work to define our own careers. Before a big meeting, Akash listens to Tu Sais, a song that he discovered while watching Amazon Prime’s Jack Ryan. The beats and rhythm provide a positive influence on self-evaluative cognition and subsequent behavior. Siya hypes herself up with S̶h̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶I̶t̶ ̶O̶f̶f̶ Run This Town (*whistles innocently*).
To create a fun hype song playlist, we asked some of our friends — emerging venture capital fund managers — about the songs they listen to when preparing for a big moment.
Here’s what they said — you can also subscribe to the Spotify playlist here.
Arlan Hamilton (Backstage Capital)
“Before a big meeting, before I go on stage, anytime I feel those little doubts creep in, I listen to the songs that empower me”
- Get up 10 — Cardi B
- Battlecry — Angel Hayes
- New Agenda — Janet Jackson
- Skyscraper — Demi L
- Price tag — Jesse J
Brianne Kimmel (Worklife Ventures)
Poolside — The Anxiety
Lolita Taub (Community Fund)
Run the World (Girls) — Beyonce
Jeff Morris Jr. (ChapterOne VC)
Underwater — Rüfüs Du Sol
Joypunks — Big Wild
Makveer Conwell (RareBreed VC)
Succa Proof — Nipsey Hussle
Samara Mejia Hernandez (Chingona Ventures)
Remember The Name — Fort Minor, Mike Shinoda
Cat Hernandez (The Venture Collective)
MIC Drop (Steve Aoki Remix) — BTS
Taylor Stockton (Pathway Ventures)
Freaking Out — Arizona
Elizabeth Yin (Hustle Fund)
U Can’t Touch This — MC Hammer
Christie Pitts (Backstage Capital)
Water Me — Lizzo
Timothy Chen (Essence Venture Capital)
See A Victory — Elevation
Immad Akhund (Immad Akhund Rolling Fund)
Ocean Drive — Duke Dumont
Allison Kapin (W Fund)
Bulls on Parade — Rage Against the Machine
Seth Bannon (Fifty VC)
I Remember — Kaskade and Deadmau5
Simeon Iheagwam (NOEMIS Ventures)
Live Your Life — TI & Rihanna
Chinedu O. P. Enekwe (AUX 21 Capital)
Kwame Nkrumah — Kojey Radical
Adith Poddar (Gemba Capital)
Eye Of The Tiger — Survivor
Vincent Diallo (Interlace Ventures)
Energy — Sampa the Great, Nadeem Din-Gabisi
Yohei Nakajima (Untapped VC)
Top of The World — Carpenters
Iyinoluwa Aboyeji (Future Africa)
Monsters You Made — Burna Boy
Tarek Waked (TypeOne VC)
Don’t stop me now — Queen
Shruti Van Dyke Gandhi (Array Ventures)
Run the World — Beyonce
Cyan Bannister (Long Journey Ventures)
We Know The Way — Moana
Masha Drokova (Day One Ventures)
El Bandido — Nicolas Jaar
Kofi Ampadu (SKU’D Ventures)
Already — Beyoncé, Shatta Wale & Major Lazer
Mallun Yen (Operator Collect)
Work That — Mary Blige
Jennifer Jordan (Techstars)
Respect — Aretha Franklin
Sisters Are Doin’ it for Themselves — Aretha Franklin
These Boots are Made for Walking — Nancy Sinatra
Shaan Puri (Shaan’s All Access Fund)
“No favorites — I do some push-ups and then I’m good to go”
What’s on your hype playlist? Let us know below or on Twitter (@bhatvakash / @siiyeah).
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