Living a new life and playing the long game: A conversation with Lomax Ward

Robin Haak: Hello, Lomax. Great to have you with us today! We have a lot of different things to talk about, so let’s start with the last couple of years for you, which must have been pretty tough. How are you doing now, and how has life changed for you?

Lomax Ward: Yeah, I think it's given me a lot of food for thought and perspective. Just to give more context, on the first of August 2023, I discovered a large tumor after some initial symptoms. I was told, “This is pretty bad, and we need to act quickly. This is cancer.” So, a week later, I had surgery to remove about 30 centimeters of my colon, my large intestine. At the time, I remember Googling that night after the diagnosis, "Can I do an ultra-marathon with a stoma?" I was really into trail running quite clearly!

Looking back on that, my priorities were completely off. ?At least I suppose I envisaged a life after this saga. ?

Anyway, post-surgery and three weeks of recovery, I jumped into nine months of chemotherapy, with infusions in the hospital every three weeks. I’m still doing maintenance chemotherapy now — just pills, which don’t have side effects — and I do scans and liquid biopsies every quarter to check how things are going.

How did you balance everything—your family, work, and health—during such a challenging time?

There are a few things I would say. First, it’s made me reassess my priorities. I feel very, very lucky for what I have. I reached the age of 38 with nothing ever going wrong — no loved ones getting sick, no immediate family dying early, no financial worries, and no risks like war, disease, or famine, and hugely supportive family and friends. It made me think about how lucky I’ve been for 38 years. It also made me realize I had been carrying this weight around, this drive for success, especially in work, that had become all-consuming. It made me reassess that.

What steps have you taken since then to realign your priorities?

Before, I was setting up Luminous and then Outsized Ventures (alongside Izzy and Rodrigo), and running Ultra Marathons, which is no small undertaking. And, during the evenings and weekends, I was setting up DragonChasers. I look back now and see now that stress took a toll. During the day, we were hustling hard on the fundraising. At night and on weekends, I wasn’t recharging. ?We ran the first DragonChasers event a September and, overwhelmed by two jobs, we canceled holidays, dropped everything, and scrambled to get everything ready. It was overwhelming. I now realize my priorities were wrong. But the flip side is that I also feel a lot of privilege working in this industry. Work has enabled me to move to Lisbon in January 2022, which has been amazing for me and my family. I spend my days chatting with incredible people who are doing crazy, inspiring things. And as a self-employed person, I have the freedom to structure my calendar the way I want. ?I also have a lot of genuine friends in the industry, not least Izzy and Rodrigo, who have been tremendously supportive during this period.

You invest a lot in health and biotech. Did this help you with your health challenges?

Honestly, the people I know through work and through Dragon Chasers have been very supportive — not just emotionally but also tangibly. I’ve been very open about what I’ve been going through, and through my friends and contacts, I managed to assemble my medical board, with an oncologist in each of London, Lisbon, Cape Town, and Barcelona.

One small example - I put something out in the Dragon Chasers WhatsApp group because I was looking for a colorectal cancer specialist. Someone in Barcelona — an LP — messaged me saying, "Hey, I’m connected to this cancer center, let me know if I can help."The next day, I was on a Zoom call with them, and they ended up working with me pro bono, which has been amazing. I feel incredibly lucky. Crazily enough, in our portfolio at Outsized, we already had two colorectal cancer companies, and their support has been immense.

Amazing. So what now? ?What does the future look like for you - what have the doctors said about your health going forward?

Well, I had a very aggressive sub-mutation (BRAF), which is linked to a poor prognosis. Thankfully the surgery, coupled with the chemotherapy, seems to have worked so far — touch wood — and I’m in remission. But every three months, I go in for scans. It's always this tense moment — I walk in, and it’s either, "You’re good for another three months," or you have an 85% ?chance of being dead in the next five years.

I can’t imagine how intense that must be.

Yeah, it's still something I face every three months — living with that uncertainty. ?It keeps me humble!

This is a profound change and a new phase in your life. How has this experience changed you?

Before, I used to take things very seriously. If you’d asked me about work, I would’ve said that in 10 years, I wanted to have a billion in assets under management. Now, I don’t care about that. ? Through work, I’ve had the chance to meet so many interesting people, and that has led me to spend a lot more time reflecting and focusing on taking care of myself. Work needs to work for the individual, not the other way around. ?Medically, I’m very proactive. I do my research, and I take a more holistic approach to my care, focusing on managing the things I can control - sleep, exercise, diet, and stress (well, at least control more than the cancer cells!).I get acupuncture weekly, high-dose vitamin infusions weekly to boost the immune system, weekly breathwork, regular aerobic and anaerobic exercise, and therapy twice a week to manage my mental health. ?I also stopped drinking completely.

I changed my diet dramatically and now work with a nutritionist. I’ve built this kind of protocol — both medical and non-medical and, to top it all, a lot of daily supplements. ?On business trips, packing my pills takes a lot longer than packing my bag.

What led you to change your approach to work-life balance, and how did you come to realize that something needed to shift?

I think I realized that venture capital is a tough industry because, as you know, most of the time it’s all or nothing. It’s not a nine-to-five job, and for those of us at the stage that you and I are in, along with other emerging managers, it’s all-encompassing. A lot of people structure their entire lives around it, and I was getting to that point. But I also have a wife and two kids, and there needed to be some separation. Before, I thought nothing of setting up DragonChasers in the evenings and weekends, even to the detriment of my family, because I felt like it had to be done. Now, I have a much more balanced approach. I feel privileged to work in this industry, but I’ve learned to manage it more effectively.

One of the smarter GPs I know in Europe, who’s now an LP, once told me that if you want to stay in this game for the long term, you have to be all in, but you also need patience.

He told me that success in this industry isn’t just about hard work; it’s also about luck and consistency over time. He said, “If you can stay in the game for 30 years, make five or six investments every year, get a bit less stupid each time, and grow your network in a smart and incremental way, there’s a high chance you will have both an enjoyable and rewarding experience.”

Success is subjective. You might not become someone like the founders of Sequoia or Tom Perkins of Kleiner Perkins and become a billionaire. But you can still have an extremely rewarding career if you define success on your terms. I think that’s crucial, especially when you consider the bull market from 2020 to 2022 — people lost patience and perspective. GPs who had struggled to raise money were suddenly finding it easy, and they started losing their heads a bit (including us at times)

What did you learn during the bull market from 2020-2022, and has your strategy changed now that the market has changed?

During the bull market run, we as an industry ended up investing much more quickly at crazy valuations, which ultimately hurt performance. Everyone thought there was a shortcut to success because everything you invested in went up quickly, and you started to believe it was your genius. For me, it’s been healthy to see this shift. A lot of people in the industry, including me, haven’t seen this kind of cycle or major correction before.

From 2016 to 2022, many people wanted to get into the industry, and this correction has tested their resolve. The ones who weren’t truly committed are probably thinking about leaving now, while those who are in it for the long term — you, me, and others — are bruised and battered, but we’re still here. It’s shown us that there are no quick fixes, and this is a long-term game requiring patience and perseverance. It reminds me of my trail running days — it’s like running an ultra-marathon; you need to pace yourself and have a plan.

I think I wasn’t pacing myself before, but now I make a conscious effort to do that, and it’s the approach I take with investments too.

With Dragon Chasers, you’re working with many emerging managers who have raised their first fund or are on their second or third. What advice do you give them about investing?

It’s a long-term game, and there’s no quick answer. Even if you think you’ve found a shortcut, it’s probably just an illusion. Valuations can go up quickly, but they can come down just as fast. I remember a corporate lawyer in the U.S. raising a $50 million fund as a side hustle (to be fair, with hindsight, he’s very humble about it). Back then, it seemed like anyone could raise a fund — celebrities, everyone. But now, their resolve is being tested. It’s a reminder that this is a long-term game. Data shows that you don’t know the quality of a fund until at least year six or seven.

As solo GPs are sitting here, taking the lowest salary we can just to keep the lights on, hoping that our funds will eventually succeed…

Exactly. One of the most successful U.S. funds, First Round, once gave us a talk and said that after they’d finished deploying one of their funds, making about 20 to 25 investments, they looked at each other and thought, “We haven’t got any good companies in this portfolio. This is going to be a dud.” But then it turned out they had Roblox and Uber in there, two of the best-performing venture deals of all time. If you look at the Roblox story, it wasn’t a straight upward trajectory — it plateaued for a while, then shot up. That’s perhaps a good segue into deep tech.

Yes, because you’re investing mainly in deep tech…

So with deep tech, it just takes longer to figure things out. You often talk about fundraising momentum, where you raise money every 12 to 18 months, showing the growth you need to justify it. That’s the typical playbook in venture — people expect fast growth. But with deep tech, if a company’s been around for five years and hasn’t moved much, people start to ask questions. That’s where patience is key.

So no overnight success?

A smart West Coast investor once told me that you don’t know you’re in the clear until you’re 85% of the way through the journey. Look at Babylon Health in the UK — people had invested half a million or a million, and on paper, they were sitting on markups worth tens of millions, maybe more. Then the company went bust while they were all locked up post listing. At one point, those investors thought they were rich, but now they’re not. It’s a reminder that perseverance is key, and you have to have the humility to know this stuff can change. There’s no room for arrogance or inflated views of your success.

What drew you to deep tech investing and "investing where others won't." What is it that interests you about this area?

I'd rather be investing in interesting and impactful, things that move the needle in terms of innovation and output. Even before my health condition, that’s what got me out of bed in the morning. I think I'd rather back to a space propulsion company over another CRM company. Put it this way — some people love nerding out on B2B software, good for them. I think there's a real opportunity in deep tech because, among other things, these companies tend to be mispriced, they can attract significant mission-driven talent and they have huge defensibility and, once productized, what I refer to as “technical leverage” - the ability to deliver significant value for customers with modest input. ?

But it’s not easy. ?My partner at Outsized, Rodrigo, ?likes to remind me, quoting a successful London VC, e that it takes $25 million to train a good VC. So actually, at Outsized, we're coming to the end of that, so while we are still making mistakes, hopefully, we're making fewer. ?And it only takes one company to change everything, so never cap the upside. ?

I was reflecting with Rodrigo yesterday about the industry — you can always worry about the volume or the quality of deals you're seeing which is something you can generally control with processes and systems. ?But one muscle that takes time and experience to build is the analytical one, and, without wishing to get too far ahead of ourselves, one thing that we feel very comfortable with is that the way we analyze companies feels more solid now, based on the experience we've gained. We're still trying to get up there, but continued progress on this gives me a lot of comfort that we’re heading in the right direction.

And what have been the biggest challenges since setting up Outsized and fundraising?

So firstly, early-stage venture in Europe, you're selling a product that not many people want to buy. And so that means that at times you feel like you're pushing water uphill, and it makes you question why you're even doing this in the first place. Is there something else I could be doing where the product is more in demand? Ironically, VCs talk about product-market fit the whole time, but a lot of venture managers who espouse product-market fit as a concept don’t have their own product-market fit.

So that's the hardest thing — finding a reason to exist in a world where there are hundreds and hundreds of VC funds, particularly new ones in the last four or five years. And that's an ongoing journey, and it changes every year. And that's the biggest challenge because ultimately, a lot of European venture is propped up by governments. So, if you raise all your money from private institutions or private individuals, you have a big battle on your hands. It's not easy. You're going to encounter a lot of “nos”, but probably more commonly, you'll encounter a lot of silence. People won’t say no, they just sit on the fence and don’t come back to you. ?

How has raising funds shaped your empathy for founders?

I’d like to think our fundraising gives me some empathy with founders on their own fundraising and sales journeys. ?But I feel lucky to be in a position where I can make five or six investment decisions a year and have a bit more clarity and time. Plus, I have the benefit of relying on the outcomes of a portfolio of companies. Founders don’t have that luxury. So, I’m nowhere near trying to compare the burdens of my journey with theirs, but there is a little bit of crossover.

What challenges do you encounter when trying to identify the right founders to invest in?

Well, firstly the best founders pick their investors and not the other way round!

But, to try to answer the question, particularly in this market and especially in deep tech, you have to ask yourself and have confidence that the founders you back will have the ability to raise more money. Because a lot of founders can hit milestones. You can look at that and say, “These people can execute,” but hitting milestones does not translate to raising money. It did maybe in the bull market, but in this market, it doesn't. ?And with more money, you won’t be getting a return as a seed investor.

You also need founders who can galvanize momentum around what they're building, amongst investors and most importantly, talent. But when it comes to investors, this can be hard particularly where the metrics are not purely commercial. So, you need founders who can get people to buy into their broader vision and get them to commit their careers (or their wallets) to the cause. ?Making that judgment has been extremely difficult, and we’ve spent more time on that in the last two years than we did in the years before.

You have a lot of different things going on, you have Outsized Ventures, and you’re running Dragon Chasers and I was at the last two events, you also have your family. How do you balance it all?

So the way I view my life is family first, then health, Outsized, and Dragon Chasers (the latter two being highly accretive to each other).

I haven’t talked about DragonChasers much. DragonChasers is an initiative that brings together some of Europe’s best GPs and LPs ? ? We host retreats in beautiful locations to get people away from the “business as usual” mindset. ?We seek to accelerate peer-to-peer learning so, in short, GPs can learn quickly from the mistakes of others (and LPs the same of course). ?We also provide an environment where people can be themselves, away from their LinkedIn “game face”, engendering more genuine and sincere relationships, be that as co-investors or potential LP commitments into GPs. ?We also seek to provide a safe, confidential space where people can openly share and discuss problems. ?And we believe it’s working - we’ve seen lots of co-investments (including, potentially I hope, my best deal), LP commitments being made and we’ve even had a couple meet and have their first child together! ?And, most importantly, I’ve made some wonderful friends in a very short amount of time. ?As long as we can keep delivering value for everyone, we will keep doing it. ?

Why did you decide to make it an invite-only community?

It’s invite-only, but I don’t want to turn it into the Freemasons or anything with secret handshakes. We just want the right people in the room and, since in my view 90% of the value comes from the people on the retreat, it would be odd not to curate the group. ?We think very hard and intentionally about that. ?Then we just need to get the location and ambiance right.

Are you looking for a specific type of person?

Yes, we’re looking for the best people in European venture, subject to a no-asshole policy. If you’re going to spend two days with someone in Iceland — or Morocco, where we’re going next year in May — you need people who pay it forward, have the right approach, and are low on ego. We screen for that, and it’s been very powerful.

A lot of LPs are flying blind, trying to find good GPs. I was chatting with a big LP today, and he said, “I’ve had 200 conversations with GPs in the last couple of years, and I still don’t know where to find the good ones because they all sound quite similar.” Dragon Chasers provides a space for LPs to swap notes and spend meaningful time with GPs, seeing them as people rather than what they see on LinkedIn or in a pitch meeting.

It’s important because most funds are for 10 years, and many get extended to 12 years. You need to get to know the true character of a GP over that time. In the first two years, there’s still the hype, the momentum, the goodwill, the back-slapping, some early mark-upsBut, by years five, six, and seven, when LPs start asking, “When are we going to get some cash back?” — that’s when the tough conversations happen. Sometimes you have the cash to send back, other times you don’t. So, it’s about understanding what happened and how you explain it. That’s where knowing the true character of a GP is key, and I think Dragon Chasers helps with that.

Thank you so much for sharing your journey, experience, and insights with me, and thank you for your honesty and vulnerability regarding your health.

Thank you. It’s been a pleasure!