Ry Walker's path into venture investing started in the 1990s, when he and his brother would unplug prospects' fax machines to show them the internet and sell websites, and that same hands-on approach carried into building commercial companies on top of open-source software, like Astronomer and Tembo. Rather than coming from a finance background, he's spent his career as an operator, going from founder to running a long-running Lean Startup meetup to co-building Fireroad with Tim Metzner, and he's known for pushing himself to get direct feedback from experienced people, like driving 10 hours to New York for a short interview with AngelPad.