Thanks to the magic of Timehop I was reminded that a year ago today we made the trek back to Utah after 2 years in the bay area. The picture above was taken of the 5 kids in our driveway before we all loaded into the car for the 12hr drive (yes, our house had its own name- Echo Creek).

As I flipped through the pictures in my feed this morning, I was reminded of the way we felt then- excitement around starting fresh in a familiar place; yet, uncertain about the impact it might have on us as a family and for me and my business.

When I tweeted out our anniversary, my friend Jesse asked what impact the move had made on my investing. His was specific to regional investing, but it made me pause and think a bit more about how work has changed as a result of where I live.

My answer to his specific question is that I’ve made more investments in the Bay Area since I’ve moved than when I lived there. During my 2 years in SF, I only made one local investment while leading or co-investing in 6 companies on the East Coast (NYC and Boston). Since being back in SLC, I’ve made 2 Bay Area investments and lead one in NYC (note- we generally make 2-4 investments per partner per year so this is roughly on pace with previous years).

So what else has changed since making the move?

I use Skype a lot more. One of the things I really enjoyed about being in the Bay Area was taking face to face meetings. I love engaging with passionate people about the ideas in their heads and the progress they’re making. After the move I did a lot of conference calls for the first few months but found the lack of face to face exposure unsatisfying at best and deeply distracting at worst (too easy to read and respond to email when no one can see). So, I switched to Skype for “face to face” meetings and found them to be a reasonable substitute for face time when I couldn’t be in the same physical location. A side benefit of Skype is that, when in full screen mode, you can’t see email or other notifications so you can focus all of your attention on the person “in front” of you.

I interact with my portfolio companies more. When I was in the Bay Area my calendar would fill up incredibly quickly. There is never a shortage of interesting people and projects to meet and talk about. I grew fond of saying that San Francisco will take everything you’re willing to give it and I was willing to give it everything. Those who felt that most acutely were my family and the companies I worked directly with. Moving back, I wanted to remedy that, so I blocked out Thursday afternoons for anyone in the portfolio who wants to talk. No agenda required. Several have jumped on that offer and I find that block of time my most anticipated and most enjoyable throughout the week. 

I’m taking fewer meetings. In general I think this has been positive. In SF, I felt the need to view my calendar as a game of tetris where every minute of every day had to be completely full with meetings. First time pitches, follow up meetings, coffee with people passing through town, lunches with other VCs to “compare notes”. You name the meeting and I took it, because I felt like that’s what I needed to do to stay in the flow. Rather than a flow I ended up feeling as if I was continually fighting to stay atop a tidal wave. A deeply unsatisfying surf. And as the numbers above point out, very little of that lead to actionable investments or opportunities. So, I’m happily less accessible and taking fewer meetings, yet seeing similar results in terms of new investments and overall dealflow.

I lost 20 lbs. Funny thing happens when you pick up 2 hours of commuting most days and eat out for at least one, and often several, meals a day. You get fat and out of shape. And when you have a family of 5 kids waiting for you at home, prioritizing time to train or fit in physical activity becomes challenging. And it was a challenge I wasn’t prepared for. Where in the past I would make time to train before work, I was ON a train. And when I came home, it was kids time. So I settled for 1 or 2 hours of some kind of training a week. For the first year or so I was able to coast on past efforts, but after that I started to slide into a condition I hadn’t been in for years. Thankfully, since returning to Salt Lake, I’ve made the time and found the commitment bone that had gone missing which has allowed me to drop the weight and feel substantially better than I have in years. 

Lest you think it’s all coming up roses, there have been some challenges.

We lost investors. When I told our investors of my intent to move back during our last fundraise, a few decided not to return. On one hand I was happy to know who our real partners were, but on the other it made me question some of my rationale for the move. Perhaps I was just being selfish. Maybe our business would suffer. Fortunately, several of the investors who did stick around have pulled me aside to personally say that their concerns have proven to be unfounded and that they’re seeing the benefits in both the portfolio and in my disposition. I look forward to proving the ship jumpers wrong as well.

Less face time. I love the people I work with at OATV. Mark and I have spent the better part of 8 years building the foundation of a very solid partnership. We have deep respect for each other and and enjoy getting to spend time together. The same is true for Carol, Renee, Laura and Cindi. Despite being in the office every other week or so, I really do miss the facetime we got together while I when I was coming to the office every day. 

More travel. I just peeked at my calendar and I will be on the road for the next 4 weeks straight. Some of that is personal, some of that is work. But it won’t be the first time that’s happened this year. A few months back I returned home after 6 straight weeks of travel and realized that I’d only slept in my bed 2 nights over that time. Fortunately, I had the luxury of canceling the next week’s trip. So I did. It was wonderful to decompress  But the reality is, my business is not in SLC. That fact doesn’t mean I have to be on the road all the time, but it does mean I’m gone often. Most of the time I enjoy it as I can generally fit an entire weeks worth of meetings into 48hrs on the road then return to a place I love to process. It isn’t for everyone but I find my travel cadence now far more tolerable than my commuting cadence then.

I’m writing less. I used to be in the habit of writing a post here at least 3 times a week and I loved that. Since moving posting here has slowed to a trickle. I want to fix that. And just like my portfolio companies, I’ve begun to block out time to make writing a priority. I find your reaction and comments here deeply valuable to my own thinking. I’ve missed that. So, I’ll be doing more writing, more posting and engaging more deeply here.

Overall, it’s been a wonderful year and we’re thrilled to be here, in SLC, planting our roots. It really is home for us. And tho our tradeoffs may not work for everyone, they’re working for us.

My hope is that the tradeoffs you’re making are working for you too.