Before becoming a venture investor, Phin Barnes spent six years at AND1 helping grow the company from about $15M to $225M in revenue, working on the original Mixtape concept, gathering feedback from players on playgrounds, and even helping convince Vince Carter to wear AND1 shoes at a dunk contest. That background shaped how he invests today: he sees venture capital as something founders are buying with their equity, avoids relying on pattern recognition, focuses on how much founders learn per dollar spent, and treats interviewing and coaching founders as skills he has deliberately studied rather than instincts he was born with.