The Visionary
The future, and what is barely possible, reads round the next corner.
Soraya Darabi earns The Visionary through method, not mystique. She builds conviction by researching territory that established venture culture ignores, backing maritime tech across India, Singapore, and Greece not as contrarianism but as disciplined belief that geographic and demographic arbitrage surfaces opportunity before capital clusters around it.
“Well, not obvious is a term you hear a lot when you go out to Silicon Valley. And I don't know, I think it was coined by a well-known early PPO employee turned billionaire, turned investor, who actually had a conference centered around non-obvious ideas. And I love the phrase.”
“Well, five to six nights a week after my day job at the New York Times, I would go to networking events with technologists and entrepreneurs after hours. I saw that as a priority to be able to partner from the earliest infancy with interesting companies for that media entity.”
“Prefeed and seed investing isn't a science, and it's certainly not a science that anyone has perfected. There are people who are incredibly good at it because they have a combination of luck and access.”
“Well, my family has been binging on 100 foot wave on HBO Max, which is the story of Big Wave Surfer Garrett McNamara, who is constantly surfing the world's largest waves. And I'm fascinated by people who have a mission that's sort of bigger than success or fame, but they're driven by something.”
Masters in Business: “At the Money: Finding Overlooked Private Investments”
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