The Lost Art of Knowing People
By Consuelo Valverde and Jared Campbell
October 2025
At Endurance28, our investment process begins not with spreadsheets, slides, or market maps, but with people. Before we consider a company’s business model or technology, we ask: Who are the founders? What is their journey? What shapes the way they see the world?
That is why our very first call with an entrepreneur is entirely about the founders themselves. We don’t review a deck. We don’t talk about financials. Instead, we listen to their story — what made this problem personal, what crossroads they are at, what values they hold onto most tightly when under pressure.
This practice is more than a ritual. It reflects a conviction that the team is the most critical part of any venture decision. And it is also a discipline — one that feels almost countercultural today. In a fast-paced world of instant gratification, where thousands of likes and superficial connections are mistaken for relationships, taking the time to genuinely get to know someone has become a lost art. For us, it is the most important art of all.
As David Brooks writes in How to Know a Person: “A person is a point of view. Every person you meet is a creative artist who takes the events of life and, over time, creates a very personal view of seeing the world”. To invest well, we have to see founders in that light. Our job is not only to recognize talent but also to remove biases that cloud judgment. Pattern recognition — the reflex to back founders who “look like” previous success stories — can lead to narrow thinking. True understanding doesn’t mean knowing someone deeply in a short time; it means knowing them well enough to grasp their perspective, values, and way of navigating uncertainty. Brooks reminds us that “when you are surrounded by mysteries, it’s best to live life in the form of a question”. That’s exactly how we approach these first calls: not trying to confirm a thesis, but to ask questions that open doors.
Our process follows a clear discipline. It begins with a three-pillar check, assessing strategic fit and conducting an initial founder screening. From there, we schedule the first two calls. The first call is all about the founders: their path, their choices, the decisions that weigh on them now. Only in the second call do we shift into a business deep dive.
“A person is a point of view. Every person you meet is a creative artist who takes the events of life and, over time, creates a very personal view of seeing the world.”— David Brooks, How to Know a Person
The insights from these conversations inform our Opportunity Score, where the team sits at the core. We look at ambition, drive, and personal depth; vision and nonlinear thinking; leadership and talent gravity; execution speed and focus; company structure and cap table. These factors are not boxes to tick but insights that help us understand how a team will operate under pressure and in pursuit of scale.
From there, we move into Decision Analysis. We have described this framework in detail elsewhere, but in brief: we construct a market map, define the business model, assess life stages and probabilities, run sensitivity analysis, and arrive at a probability-weighted MOIC. At every step, the team remains central, because every path — from market entry to scaling — is only as strong as the people driving it.
These conversations are not checklists. They are an effort to know a person well enough to see their perspective and character. To learn how they have responded to setbacks, how they make sense of uncertainty, and what gives them the resilience to keep going. We ask questions that reveal values in action: What principle do you hold onto most tightly when under pressure? What kept you going during your most difficult moments?
It is in these moments — more than in any slide or model — that we find the insights that matter most. Because at the end of the day, companies are built by people. And to invest in people, you must first know who they are and what guides them.