Deadlines
2018 BYU Strategy Professionals Conference
Speakers
Blake Modersitzki
I’m fortunate enough to have spent the last decade or so doing what I love best: invest in technology start-ups. But that’s not to say my career path has been predictable. Unless, of course, people in my profession typically move sprinkler pipe around an alfalfa field, loft hay bales, and shovel manure.
I should probably explain that I grew up on a farm in Bancroft, Idaho. My father was an old-school entrepreneur and farmer — the kind of guy who knows that if you come in from the fields with clean hands, you’re probably doing something wrong.
He may have worn overalls to work, but he had a firmer grip on wheat and grain futures than the traders on Wall Street. And not by accident, either. His father ran a furniture and carpentry startup. And his father’s father ran a fleet of fishing vessels on the Baltic Sea in East Prussia. So, needless to say, hard work is something of a family tradition.
As for me, I’ve spent my entire career in the software business doing everything from sales and marketing to M&A and, eventually, venture investing.
I also sort of enjoy running marathons with my family and a few of my partners at Pelion. And, occasionally, I enjoy an old-fashioned doughnut or three. (Which is probably why I sort of enjoy marathons.)
I managed to graduate from North Gem High in Bancroft, Idaho in the top ten of my class (the fact that there were only 21 students in my graduating class certainly helped) and I have an economics degree from Brigham Young University where, thankfully, my graduating class was much bigger.