Draft of Cat Hokeâs Upcoming Book â Second Chance
I just finished the near-final draft of Cat Hokeâs upcoming book Second Chance. It is incredibly powerful on multiple levels.
Iâve gotten to know Cat reasonably well over the past year. I first heard of her through the Techstars Foundation, where we gave her organization â Defy Ventures â one of our very first grants. I first met her a few months later in my office. After hearing her pitch for 15 minutes, I said âCat â Iâm all in â no need to sell me. What can I do to help?â
Cat, in her inimitable style, said, âThe first thing you should do is to come to prison with me.â
A few months later I spent the day at California State Prison, Los Angeles County in Lancaster with Cat, 50 EITs (Entrepreneurs-in-training), and 75 volunteers. I wrote about it as one of my top ten life experiences in my post Understanding Privilege â My Experience in Prison. Amy and I made a significant gift from our foundation (the Anchor Point Foundation) immediately after the trip and I joined the Defy Ventures board two months later.
Since then Iâve gotten to know Cat, her husband Charles, and the Defy Ventures organization. While Iâve learned a lot about prison, the criminal justice system, and the concept and experience of privilege, Iâve learned even more about myself. And I have Cat, Defy Ventures, and all of the people around Defy (both inside and outside of prison) to thank for that.
But, as Cat so eloquently says, she doesnât scale. When I first heard of Defy, it was about 20 employees. Today itâs over 50 going to 100. Like many fast-growing startups, the CEO (Cat) has to evolve in her role. While itâs hard, Cat is doing a magnificent job of it. It was logical that sheâd write a book about herself, her own second chance, Defy, the work that it does, and how/why it matters and impacts people and society.
Writing this book must have been incredibly challenging. Cat is an extremely hard worker. She travels constantly. Her work is emotionally intense and she puts 100% of herself into it. So, when I was on about page 80 of Second Chance, I thought to myself, âThis is incredible. I canât imagine how much extra energy of Catâs went into this.â
She had one of the best guides in the world â Seth Godin. Iâve been friends with Seth since the mid-1990s when I met him doing diligence for SoftBank in conjunction with Fred Wilson on the investment that SoftBank and Flatiron Partners (Fred and Jerry Colonnaâs new VC firm at the time) made in Sethâs company Yoyodyne (later acquired by Yahoo!). I felt a deep connection to Seth from day 1 and even though we donât spend much time together, ever interaction with him is treasured by me.
I can see Sethâs fingerprints all over this book. As an enormous fan of Catâs, Iâm so glad Seth took this project on. I expect their collaboration will have an important and lasting impact on the world.
Youâll get more specifics, and a full review, once Catâs book is published. Until then, if you are interested in learning more about Defy Ventures or getting involved in any way, just email me and Iâll connect you.
Also published on Medium.