David Wanek's path to venture lending is unusual: he grew up in a small Nebraska town, then built a career that mixed law, business development, and marketing at places like Wilson Sonsini, VeriSign, and Los Alamos National Laboratories before spending 26 years at Western Technology Investment, where he's been a partner for over 20 years and CEO for five. That same range shows up outside of work too, since his academic background spans a business degree, an MBA, and a law degree, and he's also taken on a wine venture that he describes as a multi-generational bet on land he planned out himself.