on being a generalist + mental health

HBD, S —

to everyone outside of it, the intersection of venture capital and tech is niche. but to those of us in it, it’s broad, scraggly, and dramatically expansive. for example, my days can range from covering a live demo day, to checking form d filings, to unpacking the latest trends in non-coastal investment firms. one story will be on plant-based startups, the other, probably filed in the same day, will be about lidar sensors. as one of my editors at the globe once told me, journalism can sometimes be a career that gives you a mini-masters degree in every subject you report on. so, don’t get me started on the future of pig-to-human transplants.

while the spontaneity of the beat is refreshing, i, by virtue of being myself, get insecure from time to time. i’m not specialized in the traditional sense. i mean, at least at this point in my career, i am not the go to Plant-Based Startups Reporter in san francisco or the Lidar Sensor Reporter in san francisco.

come to think of it, am i the go to anything?

i’m describing the emotional toll of the classic battle between being a generalist and being a specialist. i, as you can tell, fit in the former bucket. i get stuck on the idea that “a jack of all trades is a master of none.” the idea that specialists fit into a pretty self-explanatory and useful lane, while us generalists have a harder time explaining our pace.

more later, including how the battle has calmed to a less noisy alternative, but first my words + reads:

my words: i wrote about how some vc firms are offering mental health services to their portfolio companies.

etc: i wrote a series about loneliness within tech about six months ago, so if you want to read more check out my first installation.

learning lesson: there is so much to more be reported on in the intersection of mental health and tech, as shown by the response to my story! for those of you who i didn’t get to mention in my first story, tell me what i missed. i’m always game to write more.

anyways,

it has been about a year since i joined crunchbase news, and started reporting on this not-so-niche beat. but it wasn’t until a chat with holden, my former editor and forever friend, and a listen to a podcast featuring the times’ mike isaac that i realized how i could stand out in this field. especially as a generalist by nature. as isaac said (paraphrased, of course) you don’t need to be scary and aggressive to be successful as a journalist. everyone has a different style, you just have to find your own.

so on pursuit of my competitive advantage, i turned to my typing habits.

you see, i’ll always make a deadline, frantic typing and all, but i don’t jump out of my seat when a deal is made or broken. i do, however, start piecing together potential ledes the moment i learn about how a founder meditation group shut down due to too much demand and too little space. i don’t get butterflies from form d filings, treasure troves as they are. i do swell up with pride when i get to use numbers to tell the story of a government request is denying startups foreign talent. the list continues as my proudest stories are about layoffs, and visas,and yoga studios, and more. funding rounds are my excuse to get you to listen to me about the stresses of fundraising.

empathy, it seems, is my differentiator.

and while that’s a new realization, as you can see from above, it’s always been a truth in my reporting. at the end of the day, if i’m known as the reporter who can get people to talk about hard things and trust that the story they’ll see a few days later online is accurate and is human, that means i’m doing my job right. as vague as it sounds.

so, to all my fellow generalists out there, here’s to having our eyes wide. here’s to leaning into our strengths, even if they don’t include the nitty gritty dynamics of lidar sensors. here’s to me not using the phrase nitty gritty in the rest of the newsletters this year. here’s to remembering that success looks different for everyone, and there are so many different ways to be good at our crafts.

and of course, here’s to loving that specialists exist so we have someone to bring into every rabbit hole we find ourselves in,

n