David Hall focuses on connecting founders, investors, and universities to build denser startup networks in cities that venture capital has often overlooked, and he applies his idea that people who leave for coastal tech hubs often return home to build companies there. He tends to back businesses that already have some revenue rather than early-stage ideas, weighs a founder’s real motivation when deciding whether to invest, and encourages aspiring investors to start their own company first; his own path through Morgan Stanley, Akamai, Washington Post corporate development, and competitive swimming shapes how he thinks about preparation and sticking with something through hard times, along with his habit of asking how an unusual idea could work, as he did when studying AppHarvest’s move from coal land to hydroponic farming.