Merci Victoria Grace: Partner at Lightspeed Ventures

Growing up, Merci aspired to become a journalist. When she was 12, she heard about the Pentagon Papers and was fascinated by investigative journalism. The idea that action on an individual level matters is something that really resonates with her. It is one of the reasons why she decided to start a company and become a venture capitalist. Previously, Merci was the first Head of Product at Slack, where she led the company from 500k daily active users to over 6M daily active users. In 2015, she founded the Women in Product community, which has over 13,000 members worldwide. Merci currently serves as a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, where she invests in both consumer and enterprise companies.

When was a time you wanted to give up, and what made you persevere through it?

I have never really wanted to give up. At one point, I had a venture-backed gaming company that I had to shut down because we ran out of money due to the recession.  As a young person and throughout my career, I was just convinced that I would eventually be successful, and that’s what kept me going. If you get knocked down a hundred times, everyone gets knocked down a hundred times, but, if you get up that 101st time, you win. I invest in startups now and one of the things I look for is that the founders have a deep intrinsic motivation. 

If you have a deep intrinsic motivation, like you really want to change the world and you really want to help the person who you have determined is your customer, you will keep going way past the point that the average person who just wants to be a CEO because they think it sounds cool would stop. Starting companies is not easy, being a CEO or founder is not always fun, but the people who are successful at it are the people who are not motivated by achieving a particular status. They are motivated by putting an output into the world. 

What is the greatest risk you have ever taken?

Starting a company is one of the greatest risks I have taken. I grew up in a working-class family in the Central Valley of California, I am one of seven children, so my parents were never going to pay for me to go to college and I knew it. I really wanted to go to USC where I did end up going because of their journalism program. Two of my siblings had gone to Fresno State and the advice they gave me was not to worry about how much college costs, just take out the loan and you will be fine. So, the greatest risk I ever took was financing my own education through student loan debt. I had gotten a lot of financial aid, my mom was making $24,000 a year, but I still had to take out money to go to college while working part-time around my schedule. After I graduated, I got a job at JJ Abrams’ production company Bad Robot; on the weekends and evenings, I would work on my gaming company. I had to work overtime every day to barely make my student loan payments. 

When was a time you failed, and what did you learn from that experience?

I had to shut my first startup down for a lot of reasons. I learned that market timing really matters. I started a social gaming company at a time right before social gaming companies became really popular. We built an entire social network in addition to our game. Around a year later, Facebook came out with a platform and all of our competitors immediately started on that platform. We had already spent so much time on energy building our own social network that we just kept on working, which was the wrong call. 

The other mistake I made with my startup is that while I actively sought out advice, I took very little of it. There was a lot of advice I received in my late teens and early 20’s that I should have taken but did not. You can learn a lot from reading books, talking to people, and understanding how other people live their lives. However, there are some things you just have to go through on your own. 

I have always been confident that I would be successful but at the same time very impatient. I remember when I turned 16 and I had not yet published a novel, I was really upset with myself and felt like I really let myself down. It is easy to beat yourself up, but the truth is that most people go through their life not even recognizing the faults that they have. 

What is the greatest challenge you came across, and how did you mentally challenge through it?

The greatest challenge I have had is myself. Just getting in my own way, overreacting to situations, taking feedback poorly, not taking advice, getting too angry, and being too sad. The only thing that has stopped me from accomplishing everything that I want to do is my own mindset.

What is one thing you have yet to accomplish?

I would like to give back to society in a more impactful way. I would one day like to run for a role in an elected office or run an organization where the primary goal is helping other people. I have spent the first part of my life working my way out of poverty and becoming a better person. I want to share what I have learned from doing that and use that privilege to help other people have safer and happier lives.

If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?

I would have many, many, many, many, many more women in charge of everything! 

What is the greatest factor that has helped you get to where you are today?

I think my resilience and the desire to keep trying has been instrumental in my success. I do not know of anything you cannot overcome by continuing to work hard.