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The art of gathering: cultivating a thriving community

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By
Christine Choi
Christine Choi
By M13 Team
Link copied.
December 19, 2022
|

4 min

Quote
We frequently talk about the ‘what was that!?’ effect of a truly special event: the feeling a guest has the day after when they realize that they didn't go to just another networking happy hour or dinner. It's exactly how I've been feeling today about M13’s mix of incredible venue, guests, conversation, and energy. So unique and memorable.

Community member

With changing public health and personal safety standards, 2022 was once again about experimenting with hybrid gatherings. Our community saw value in coming together to learn and support each other this year at 58 digital and in-person events. For the many of us now used to working and interacting on our screens, going outside of digital filters can seem time-inefficient, awkward, and risky. Here are a few lessons and insights we learned about creating intentional in-person gatherings.

First, a quick look back at this year:

Start with your why

There is something deeply powerful about in-person gatherings. Connecting with others in real life helps us use our senses to express curiosity, ask better questions and listen, and build empathy and trust essential for lasting relationships. Being open to serendipity and meeting others help break us out of our echo chambers and stay humble in the vastness of the universe.

At M13, to be good citizens and investors is to be active stakeholders in our local and global communities. That work enables us to facilitate intimate and meaningful experiences with our investors, founders, talent, and partners. The resulting dialogue, insights, and personal growth ultimately help us lead and build better. That’s our why. What’s yours?

Quote
I always leave M13 events thinking they are much more hip than typical VC events. Lots of interesting people are always in attendance outside of just founders and VCs. It was a fruitful event.

Founder

Nurture curiosity beyond ourselves to learn about ourselves

We host intimate gatherings around the country, and they are effective and fun ways to convene founders and investors with shared goals. As an established firm with a long and well-known presence in LA, we are active across the best of what the city offers and collaborate with local partners to host an annual program called M13 field trips.

This year, field trips for investors included volunteering at a maximum security prison, sailing to tour the largest port of the western hemisphere and meet blue economy entrepreneurs, and a guided hike with wildlife advocate Beth Pratt to learn why LA is the home of what will be the world’s largest wildlife crossing.

Connection happens when you experience things together. Riding on a coach bus with other investors, sharing peanut butter sandwiches in a prison rec room, and standing together on the edge of a protective migration path for at-risk wildlife set a tone of humility, awe, and connection that no algorithm can engineer.

Quote
I always leave M13 events thinking they are much more hip than typical VC events. Lots of interesting people are always in attendance outside of just founders and VCs. It was a fruitful event.

Founder

M13 partner Christine Choi with a Defy Ventures Entrepreneur in Training.
M13 team and investors at AltaSea field trip.
Quote
The aquaculture mussel and USC kelp tours were fascinating; even those who live locally hadn't realized how mussels are seeded and farmed. Thank you to our brave investors for climbing the mast and hoist the sails! Knowing that elementary school students do this same tour made us feel a lot better about our abilities on the boat!

Community member about AltaSea

Impact starts by expressing your values

Founder mental wellness is important to us and a key part of scaling your business and leadership. After a day of collaborative working sessions, our founders were invited to decompress with breathwork, meditation, and a creative writing hike in Malibu. They said it meant a lot to have investors by their side who make room for their health and wellbeing.

Quote
Thank you for organizing it! My serene mood has been commented on multiple times today.

Founder about Five Sense Collective

M13 team and founders at Five Sense Collective field trip.
M13 community and founders at Malibu creative writing hike field trip
Quote
Proud to work at a firm that cares about returning both capital and impact.

Founder about Defy Ventures

Listen to your community

We take care in curating experiences that condition our full senses and enrich our understanding of the world while also fostering psychological and physical safety. Feedback allows us to consistently improve. In 2022, our event NPS was 67, and we are grateful for feedback that makes us better.

Quote
Volunteering at the Lancaster facility was one of the most impactful and memorable experiences I have been a part of. I consistently found myself telling others how humanizing the experience was. Thank you Defy Ventures for stewarding an engaging, safe, and moving experience for all.

M13 team about Defy Ventures

Special thanks to our local partners who welcomed our founders and investors and enabled magical moments across LA: AltaSea, Annenberg Foundation, Beth Pratt, CalTrans, Defy Ventures, Five Sense Collective, Frequency Breathwork, National Wildlife Federation, Port of Los Angeles, and SVB.

Want to learn more about M13?

Quote
We frequently talk about the ‘what was that!?’ effect of a truly special event: the feeling a guest has the day after when they realize that they didn't go to just another networking happy hour or dinner. It's exactly how I've been feeling today about M13’s mix of incredible venue, guests, conversation, and energy. So unique and memorable.

Community member

With changing public health and personal safety standards, 2022 was once again about experimenting with hybrid gatherings. Our community saw value in coming together to learn and support each other this year at 58 digital and in-person events. For the many of us now used to working and interacting on our screens, going outside of digital filters can seem time-inefficient, awkward, and risky. Here are a few lessons and insights we learned about creating intentional in-person gatherings.

First, a quick look back at this year:

Start with your why

There is something deeply powerful about in-person gatherings. Connecting with others in real life helps us use our senses to express curiosity, ask better questions and listen, and build empathy and trust essential for lasting relationships. Being open to serendipity and meeting others help break us out of our echo chambers and stay humble in the vastness of the universe.

At M13, to be good citizens and investors is to be active stakeholders in our local and global communities. That work enables us to facilitate intimate and meaningful experiences with our investors, founders, talent, and partners. The resulting dialogue, insights, and personal growth ultimately help us lead and build better. That’s our why. What’s yours?

Quote
I always leave M13 events thinking they are much more hip than typical VC events. Lots of interesting people are always in attendance outside of just founders and VCs. It was a fruitful event.

Founder

Nurture curiosity beyond ourselves to learn about ourselves

We host intimate gatherings around the country, and they are effective and fun ways to convene founders and investors with shared goals. As an established firm with a long and well-known presence in LA, we are active across the best of what the city offers and collaborate with local partners to host an annual program called M13 field trips.

This year, field trips for investors included volunteering at a maximum security prison, sailing to tour the largest port of the western hemisphere and meet blue economy entrepreneurs, and a guided hike with wildlife advocate Beth Pratt to learn why LA is the home of what will be the world’s largest wildlife crossing.

Connection happens when you experience things together. Riding on a coach bus with other investors, sharing peanut butter sandwiches in a prison rec room, and standing together on the edge of a protective migration path for at-risk wildlife set a tone of humility, awe, and connection that no algorithm can engineer.

Quote
I always leave M13 events thinking they are much more hip than typical VC events. Lots of interesting people are always in attendance outside of just founders and VCs. It was a fruitful event.

Founder

M13 partner Christine Choi with a Defy Ventures Entrepreneur in Training.
M13 team and investors at AltaSea field trip.
Quote
The aquaculture mussel and USC kelp tours were fascinating; even those who live locally hadn't realized how mussels are seeded and farmed. Thank you to our brave investors for climbing the mast and hoist the sails! Knowing that elementary school students do this same tour made us feel a lot better about our abilities on the boat!

Community member about AltaSea

Impact starts by expressing your values

Founder mental wellness is important to us and a key part of scaling your business and leadership. After a day of collaborative working sessions, our founders were invited to decompress with breathwork, meditation, and a creative writing hike in Malibu. They said it meant a lot to have investors by their side who make room for their health and wellbeing.

Quote
Thank you for organizing it! My serene mood has been commented on multiple times today.

Founder about Five Sense Collective

M13 team and founders at Five Sense Collective field trip.
M13 community and founders at Malibu creative writing hike field trip
Quote
Proud to work at a firm that cares about returning both capital and impact.

Founder about Defy Ventures

Listen to your community

We take care in curating experiences that condition our full senses and enrich our understanding of the world while also fostering psychological and physical safety. Feedback allows us to consistently improve. In 2022, our event NPS was 67, and we are grateful for feedback that makes us better.

Quote
Volunteering at the Lancaster facility was one of the most impactful and memorable experiences I have been a part of. I consistently found myself telling others how humanizing the experience was. Thank you Defy Ventures for stewarding an engaging, safe, and moving experience for all.

M13 team about Defy Ventures

Special thanks to our local partners who welcomed our founders and investors and enabled magical moments across LA: AltaSea, Annenberg Foundation, Beth Pratt, CalTrans, Defy Ventures, Five Sense Collective, Frequency Breathwork, National Wildlife Federation, Port of Los Angeles, and SVB.

Want to learn more about M13?

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The views expressed here are those of the individual M13 personnel quoted and are not the views of M13 Holdings Company, LLC (“M13”) or its affiliates. This content is for general informational purposes only and does not and is not intended to constitute legal, business, investment, tax or other advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters and should not act or refrain from acting on the basis of this content. This content is not directed to any investors or potential investors, is not an offer or solicitation and may not be used or relied upon in connection with any offer or solicitation with respect to any current or future M13 investment partnership. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Unless otherwise noted, this content is intended to be current only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in funds managed by M13, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by M13 is available at m13.co/portfolio.