‘Hot Seat’ interview with Episode 1’s Managing Partner Paul McNabb, self confessed geek, food and wine obsessive. Let’s see what makes him tick…
| What’s your name and where are you from? |
| Paul McNabb, born in Blackburn, lives in London, lived on the East coast and the West Coast US, in France and in China |
| Three words to describe yourself? |
| Geeky, curious, seeking |
| What has been your biggest success in your life so far? |
| Happily married for 30 years |
| What’s your biggest failure? |
| Not coming into VC earlier |
| If you weren’t doing your job you do today, what would you do? |
| Perfecting my sourdough, running a pop up supper-club from my wood burning oven, or perhaps studying evolutionary biology |
| Who would be your mystery dinner guest (dead or alive) & why? |
| Ferran Adria from the former El Bulli because he is the most influential chef of his era and I never got to eat there! He also looks like he is completely bonkers and as obsessed with learning as I am. |
| If you were to win the lottery what would be the FIRST thing you’d do? |
| Buy a cervelo carbon road bike and cycle to the top 10 restaurants in the world |
| What’s your favourite book/blog/website to read? |
| Probably the Art of Eating – I like Eater for recommendations. Books – Gilead by Marilynne Robinson was probably the most moving book I’ve read in the last decade. |
| What’s the Dumbest thing you have ever done? |
| Investing heavily in Global Crossing in the early 00’s, I loved the idea but they were way ahead of their time |
| What was the biggest ‘EUREKA’ moment in your life so far? |
| In 1993 I was doing some work for Silicon Graphics, the workstation company, and my contact showed me this thing called the Web working on a pretty rubbish piece of software called Mosaic. If I recall, pretty much the only site you could browse was CERN, but it totally blew my mind. |
| If you were to die tomorrow, what advice would you leave to the world? Life is a long game, and the journey is the reward not the destination |
| Who would you like to nominate next for the ‘Hot seat’? Misha Gopaul, CEO of FatMap |
4th floor, 112-116 New Oxford St, London WC1A 1HH
