Rudy Gadre came to venture investing from law and operating roles, having been Amazon's fourth lawyer and later Facebook's General Counsel during its early growth, and he has described his move into angel investing as a way to act as a Seattle civic booster rather than just stay in tech. He judges founders on intellect, drive, and charisma, a standard shaped by working closely with both Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, and he remains a builder as well as an investor, serving as Co-Founder and Chairman of Denkyem alongside his role at Founders' Co-op.