The Harlem Capital Team’s Personal Mission Statements
by Harlem Capital
By Melody Hahm
Harlem Capital is a venture capital firm on a mission to change the face of entrepreneurship by investing in 1,000 diverse founders over 20 years. It’s a mission we’re proud of and view as our north star every day.
Our firm also has seven core values: over-communicate, process is religion, data drives decisions, long-term vision, reputation is everything, dream bigger, enjoy the journey.
Because the HCP team is a fully distributed workforce, we deeply cherish the in-person time we get to share once a quarter. We reunite for retreats across different cities (we traveled to Mexico City, New York, Dallas, and Miami in 2022) and spend most of the week sharing our vision and goals for the firm and portfolio.
One of the best parts of our retreats is carving out dedicated space to express our own personal dreams and what kind of impact we want to leave on the world. In December, we did an exercise drafting our personal core values and mission statements.
It’s remarkable to see how much overlap there is between the firm’s philosophy and how we as individuals are choosing to live out our lives.
A mission statement, according to leadership expert Simon Sinek, has to check these three boxes:
1. Resilient: able to withhold cultural, economic, and technological change
2. Inclusive: the words that you choose are an invitation to anyone who wants to contribute to what you believe
3. Service-oriented: the primary benefactor cannot be the contributor
Here’s what we came up with!
Gabby Cazeau – generosity, leadership, resiliency
- To be a leader who shines a light for others and helps them see the strength within them and the courage to pursue their dreams
Jarrid Tingle – loyalty, passion, maximizing opportunities
- To maximize opportunities and passionately serve others to make the world a better place
Nicole DeTommaso – kindness, passion, inclusiveness
- To use my experience, knowledge, and authenticity to open up as many doors as possible for others
Brandon Bryant – integrity, growth mindset, kindness
- To serve as an example for others and showing that you can work hard, play harder but still be successful and give back to your community – stay humble, hustle hard
Melody Hahm – compassion, growth mindset, curiosity
- To ignite connection and bridge seemingly disparate communities together through the power of genuine compassion and curiosity
Henri Pierre-Jacques – love, communication, enjoyment
- To help others see the love and enjoyment of life by communicating my story
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