My First Newsletter: Zeal, Why?Now?

Happy New Year to you!!

In a time of crisis and loss, creativity and inspiration are born, an extraordinary dose of fuel to one’s fire proliferates. Even with all of this, also comes doubt, imposter syndrome, asking ourselves — is this meant for me to lead? Why now? Can it wait for five years? In my case to start a company, an investment firm — Zeal Capital Partners. For people who know me well, they know that I’m a huge history buff. I love history, mainly because I believe it helps us understand people, communities, the broader society we live in today and how it came to be, and the possibility of becoming a more inclusive society. When deciding to finally go all-in as an entrepreneur, I reflected on this Nelson Mandela quote, one of my personal favorite leaders in global history.

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. A brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” — “Long Walk to Freedom, The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela” written by Mandela in 1994.

Welcome to my first of many newsletters! It is long, but the best way to kick off the New Year! It is here where you will find the latest updates on all things Zeal, our growing crop of portfolio companies, and our market outlook based on our domain expertise and research, from think tanks such as the Brookings Institution. You will not just hear from me, but members of my core team, operating partners, advisory board, and limited partners.

Buckle up! These newsletters are meant to be informative, and sometimes humorous as we look to be the best exemplar of what it means to build an inclusive community, where there’s room for everyone to participate and share their voices.

To start, I’d like to take a step back and provide a glimpse of my own journey, and how Zeal was born. In the words of my late great grandmother, “they need to know where you’ve been before you share with them where you are looking to go, baby.” Well….here we go.

While admittedly I had some initial pause with starting Zeal, I knew I was supported by my tireless family, dedicated mentors, and close friends, who all believed in me ……very early, so this helped. These were the foundational indicators I knew I needed to get started, or my “Muladhara” meaning my Root. Like many of us taking on new hobbies during this pandemic, I was introduced to my Chakras.

While none of us could have forecasted the deadly coronavirus pandemic, sharp economic downturn, and the most recent social unrest uproar not experienced since the 1960s, starting a company in 2020 was actually perfect timing.

For the past decade, I’ve experienced and enjoyed a unique path as a venture capitalist, sourcing, investing, and scaling high growth early-stage technology businesses.

My pathway underscores the saying, “there’s no cookie-cutter pathway” to venture. Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, my mother was a long-time administrative assistant, and my father a real estate developer and broker. While never married, and a relationship often difficult, when I look back there is zero doubt they did what was best for me. Coupled with my family’s support, I went through about five non-profits that shaped my thinking about the importance of service, getting a great education, and different career possibilities that yielded economic mobility for me personally. I went on to Hampton University, a Historically Black College University (HBCU) in Hampton, Virginia — by far the best four consecutive year experience in my life, so far.

After graduating with honors, I moved to New York and cut my teeth on Wall Street. First, a brief stint at Goldman Sachs as an Analyst on the Municipal Bond desk, and then State Street Bank in Boston, on the Equities Sales and Research desk as a Senior Associate. Beginning my career in the public markets was both an awful and rewarding experience. From every mistake and learning experience, my long term interest began to take its shape.

My motto was simple, “Every interaction you have is an opportunity to make a positive impact on others, especially the most vulnerable.” The question I pondered most — “How do I bridge the gap between skillset, interest, and values?”

I established close relationships with Wall Street veterans, particularly Black senior bankers whom I met with regularly early in my career. George Russell, a retired State Street Executive, Ray McGuire former Head of Investment Banking at Citi now running for Mayor of New York City, and Fred Royall, Managing Director at JP Morgan Chase, to name a few. They were mentor-coaches, each sharing with me their lessons learned on leadership, being selfless, being proactive, and mentoring the next generation.

During the latter part of my time at State Street, some friends and I opened a coffee shop in the West Village. While many would agree this was not the best way to invest one’s entire bonus check, however as luck may have it, launching this coffee shop ultimately became my forway to getting introduced to the private markets, to venture capital. Before WeWork was popular, our ambiance was set up as a coffee shop and co-working/incubator during the day, and a wine bar at night.

As part owner, I regularly traveled from Boston to New York to check on the business. During my check-ins with customers, I noticed a number of entrepreneurs pitching their business ideas to investors. Inquisitive as I am, I often found myself becoming nosy, asking questions about their business just to introduce myself. After befriending a few investors, they later introduced me to the private markets, specifically impact investing, and the education technology sector. I took a strong interest in Edtech given my interest in education, and the role of innovation and technology as a means to increase student achievement and employment outcomes from K12 to the workforce.

In parallel, I also began to get involved with Education nonprofits like America Needs You (ANY), which provides mentorship and career guidance for low-income first-generation college students. Deeply connected to the mission, I set a lofty goal and decided to raise one million dollars by running 51 full marathons one in each US state including DC, for first-generation college students across the country, with proceeds directed to ANY. To date, I’ve completed 18.

After departing the public markets and selling the coffee shop in 2012, I would spend the next few years in politics, first as a volunteer for then-Mayor Cory Booker’s campaign, during his special run for Senate of New Jersey. Shortly thereafter in an appointed role as Special Assistant and an Education Pioneer Fellow, to the Commissioner of Education, then Stefan Pryor, at the Connecticut State Department of Education, focusing on digital learning and infrastructure, ensuring all districts and schools had high-speed internet access, and exploring the best partnerships with EdTech companies across the state.

After my brief stint as a civic appointee, I began strategizing what was next — business school, back into the private sector, or begin exploring a role in venture? After getting accepted into a few business schools, I met Ross Baird, then CEO of Village Capital now Founder at Blueprint Local, and Alex Fife, as then COO now an Investor at SEI Ventures. Meeting Ross and Alex, was technically a cold email, after sending hundreds of cold emails to venture capital firms, I was surprised that they responded. Probably because of my respectful….persistence.

Based in Washington DC, Village Capital serves as an early stage global investment firm and R&D lab focused on sourcing and investing in founders building high growth businesses across the Health, Energy, Agriculture, Financial Health, and Education/Workforce sectors.

There was an opening to lead their Education portfolio. After I pitched a number of EdTech companies and shared an investment strategy focusing on Future of Work businesses, I sold them and packed my bags, and moved from Hartford, Connecticut to Washington, DC. I skipped business school, this role was it!

In 2014, I joined as Global Head of Village Capital’s Education Practice and Investments, I was 30, charged with structuring its investment mandate, sourcing strategy, and post-investment value creation across emerging markets and the US. The latter time at VilCap, I shifted into a more US-centric role, leading its US Economic Opportunity portfolio, expanding my lens from Education/Workforce to Health and Financial Technology companies. AT&T became an early backer in Village Capital, and in 2017 tapped me to join their Social Investment fund, a $400 million commitment, leveraging philanthropic capital to invest in early-stage education technology companies. We would also provide grant capital to entrepreneurial support organizations (ESO) across the US in efforts to amplify local entrepreneurial ecosystems that were often overlooked. This role provided early access to deal flow that yielded a more inclusive/diverse pipeline of founders.

Across these two funds, my investment acumen began to take shape, and I developed a totally different outlook compared to traditional venture capitalists. The willingness to bet early on underrepresented, investable founders, who deserve a fair “swing at the plate” at capital and resources. The fundamental belief that investable companies exist everywhere, not just in very few places, and not just backing the same people over and over and over again. It was also clear to me, from a market opportunity, the amount of innovation I continued to witness across two specific sectors — Financial Technology and Future of Work.

These two sectors also highlighted the role businesses can play in closing the wealth and skills gap.

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“Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure.” — Oprah Winfrey, O Magazine, September 2002.

Launching Zeal: At The Dinner Table 

After a long late-night dinner at the Hamilton in Washington, DC with two long-time mentors I began sharing and brainstorming Zeal Capital Partners. Why the word “Zeal?” To be zealous is everything I’ve always valued in founders. The passion, resilience, persistence, and the ability to execute is what I look for most in a founder before I decide to invest.

It was clear to me that it was time to build a best in class institutional investment firm, that is centered around a new investment discipline. Reflecting back on Mandela’s words, I also knew my differentiated experience, reputation with entrepreneurs and investors, and strong respected relationships across diverse stakeholders best positioned me to get started now.

After AT&T, in the summer of 2019, I began market mapping the two sectors that fell within my competence most — Financial Technology and Future Work. As a Brookings Society member, I leveraged R&D from research experts like Andre Perry, Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution, that shaped our investment thesis, especially as we thought about low wealth communities and potential policy implications that could prevent portfolio companies from scaling. This was also a competitive advantage of being headquartered in Washington, DC versus most venture capital firms in New York and San Francisco — proximity to Capitol Hill, federal agencies, many think tanks, and the White House.

It was important we led with inclusion, not diversity so that we could be even more proactive and intentional about widening our lens. This approach begins with our team and extends to include the makeup of our companies, geographic regions we proactively invest in, aligned LPs, and measuring social impact outcomes via our proprietary impact framework.

While it is clear where capital has been allocated since private equity’s inception — gender, ethnicity, and geographically, there’s not enough discussion about a specific strategy or investment discipline that best levels the playing field for more founders to gain a fair swing at the plate.

Inclusive Investing? was it — Zeal’s key differentiator — a five-pronged market-backed strategy that we believe positions Zeal to capture under-tapped opportunity as well as help our portfolio companies outperform:

1. We are diverse fund managers with complementary backgrounds and skillsets on our team
2. We focus on investing in diverse management teams, that have a combination of skill sets and backgrounds that help portfolio companies outperform
3. We have a wide geographic range that looks to all regions of the U.S.  for potential investments, not just the geographic VC “hotbeds”
4. We focus our investments in Financial Technology and the Future of Work, where we expect continued innovation and opportunity for disruption
5. We have a lens on impact seeking to achieve top tier financial and social returns that impact under-resourced communities and small businesses. We also proactively source, invest, and scale in companies that directly impact 9 of the 17 United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This investment discipline shows how these factors contribute to strong fund performance as well as the fact that we are leaning in where other investors have not been able to make adequate leeway, but where we know there are trillions of dollars in value.

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“There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit.” — President Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States

The Most Dynamic Tireless Team 

The infrastructure of our team is what I’m most excited about! A small but mighty team, with vigorous investment acumen, domain expertise, and operational experience which is critical to our success. Also, and most notably our diverse personal backgrounds.

Andy Will, our Senior Investment Associate, Washington DC area native, and son of a facial reconstruction surgeon who served in the arm forces, was a former lacrosse star at Notre Dame, and equities derivatives trader at JP Morgan. He later attended the Chicago Booth School of Business and migrated to the private markets, leading Fintech sourcing at Listen Ventures. Andy leads our deal sourcing, entrepreneur relations, and investment recommendation process.

Nicole West serves as our Executive in Residence for our Financial Technology sector. Raised in a blue-collar family, Nicole is the daughter of a firefighter and a first-generation college graduate. She spent her career as an executive at a number of blue-chip financial services firms such as Legg Mason, Capital One, and Freddie Mac. Nicole supports our screening, diligence, and post-investment value creation across all FinTech deals.

Jason Green, Nicole’s counterpart serving as our Executive in Residence for our Future of Work vertical. Jason was already a close friend, the Quince Orchard, Maryland native, preacher’s kid, and Yale Law School alum, served in the Obama Administration, as Associate White House Counsel. His exposure to local and national unemployment rates, policy responses, and the effects on the economy inspired his launch of an employment technology company that empowers communities by providing the skills-based ecosystem to connect employers, job seekers, and education providers. He brings his legal and operator experience to supporting the screening, diligence, and post-investment value to Future of Work deals.

And Sherilyn Casiano serves as our CFO. Currently residing in Detroit, Michigan, she brings 20+ years of managing private equity, venture, and hedge fund investments for GPs and LPs. Most recently she served as a senior executive at KKR covering the KKR Family Office. Sherilyn is responsible for providing financial reports and analysis of the Management company and GP, and liaisons with our fund administrators, Carta. Sherilyn received her MBA from Columbia University, has been recognized by Forbes as one of the Top 100 Women in Business to Watch, and is the backbone of our firm.

Outside of our core team, there’s our Operating Partners, who bring specific functional expertise. A blue-chip Advisory Board who are all thought leaders across the Future of Work, such as Frank Bonsal, at Bonsal Capital, Financial Services, such as Jennifer Tescher CEO at the Financial Health Network, Impact Investing, such as Wes Moore CEO at Robinhood Foundation, and Racial Equity, such as Perry at Brookings.

Together, we leave our egos at the door and bring strong differentiated sourcing capabilities, an attractive partnership offering for entrepreneurs so we are in the best position to win the best deals in the marketplace, and are prepared to support portfolio companies in their growth and impact.

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Zeal Capital Partners is the product of my years within the investment community and my belief that skills and talent are evenly distributed but opportunity is not. Though I started working on building Zeal over a year ago, the pandemic and social unrest have made our investment thesis even more relevant today. When more than 40 million Americans are unemployed and less than 30% are “financially healthy,” it’s abundantly clear that we need more businesses delivering solutions to bridge the Wealth and Skills gap at scale. This is why the timing is now. We’ve made excellent strides in 2020, announcing our first investment in Esusu, and first close of $22.3 million anchored by PayPal. While it’s easy for most of us to look forward to 2021, we will all look back at 2020 and realize how much it made us all stronger and even more laser-focused on our calling. For me it was Zeal!

I look forward to sharing more in the weeks to come, learning from you, and exploring ways to work together.

Now let’s go with #Zeal!

Encouraged,

Nasir