Being an investor in the early stages of companies has a lot of responsibility. You know the money you are putting in is a vote of confidence, but your role is even more important, you become a sounding board, a mentor, and in the best cases, a friend to the founder. Our guest today is Sam Haffar , Partner at Real Ventures , and he knows this road very well. This was a great chat and it was wonderful to hear Sam’s perspective on investing and the market. And we also have reactions to the week’s news with John Ruffolo . About Sam Haffar: Sam Haffar is Partner at Real Ventures, where he works with founders on all aspects of their business from organizational development and product strategy to series A fundraising, growth, and scale initiatives. He began in the Silicon Valley startup world barely before he graduated from university and then joined the founding team at Chegg, a leading education technology company that went public in 2013. In this episode we discuss: (0:00:56)  News roundup with John Ruffolo talks Thoma Bravo acquiring Magnet Forensics, preventing hollowing out Canada, ChatGPT’s threat to white collar workers, and activist investors (0:19:03)  Sam Haffar’s journey to becoming an investor (0:22:39)  Where Sam gets his drive (0:25:21)  On becoming an extrovert (0:27:57)  How Sam came to the Canadian tech scene (0:32:14)  Coping with imposter syndrome as an early investor (0:36:14)  Processing the emotional rollercoaster of being an early-stage investor (0:43:10)  Staying grounded when things may look a bit too rosy (0:48:57)  How founders can deal with adversity (0:52:00)  Backing founders super early (0:54:43)  Work-life balance with young kids at home (0:57:56)  What keeps Sam passionate about this space (1:01:07)  His vision as a content creator in the space (1:04:18)  Content creators he admires (1:06:23)  How he supports his portfolio as they grow Fast Favorites: 🎙- Favorite Podcast: Lex Fridman 📰- Favorite Newsletter/Blog: Waverly 📲- Favorite Tech Gadget: iPhone 📈-  Favorite New Trend: ChatGPT 📚- Favorite Book: Kitchen Confidential 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: If you live by fear, you create a fearful world. But if you live by love, you create a fear less world, not fearless, but fear less world. Follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here! Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency