Career Shaping Conversations: Vanesa Pazos

Who are you and what do you do?

I’m Vanesa and I’m a Partner and founder at NoBa Capital. But first and foremost, I’m a mum to five incredible kids.

We founded NoBa to remove the barriers for people looking to invest, and for founders to raise investment. That’s what NoBa stands for, ‘no barriers’. We focus on investing in companies that foster worker happiness, and I’m passionate about transparency, fairness and increasing equality of opportunity - that shows up in our commitment to backing diverse founders.

I started my career as an EA, which I loved - I’m a great number two - and then moved more into people and operations roles, before making the decision to go back to being EA at a venture builder, which was fascinating, helping to define the culture of companies in transition.

I’m also a school governor and an advisor at an amazing non-profit - Good Nugget -  that focuses on increasing representation in creative careers.

A conversation I come back to again and again

Just after I graduated, I had a conversation with my best friend’s father, who gave me some career advice. He was a mortgage broker and he really loved his job.

He told me to remember one thing as I set off into the working world: to just enjoy what I do, whatever that is, whether it’s related to what I’ve studied or not, just enjoy getting up every day and doing it.

And I’ve kept that advice in mind ever since. I’ve always considered whether my choices have brought me joy. It’s not just about being ‘successful’, it’s also about asking myself ‘am I having fun?’

That’s meant that I’ve taken some big risks along the way and that my career might not necessarily make sense to others. For example, after having my youngest child, I chose to leave a very successful job as I wasn’t enjoying it anymore; I either felt guilty about leaving my team or my kids. So I took a pay cut, went back to being an EA, and I started having fun again.

So I always return to that conversation with my friend’s dad and remember to enjoy the journey!

A clarifying conversation

My partner, Kevin, and I founded NoBa together, he’s my biggest cheerleader but also the person who can be most honest with me. He sees the things about me that I most need to know.

Up until about two years ago, I thought I was happy being in the background at NoBa, but I was also harbouring frustration that people didn’t really get to see the passion I had for our mission. Kevin saw that frustration, and through a series of conversations, helped me be more honest about what I wanted from my role.

He led me through a sort of 5 year performance review, and helped create my vision for the next 5. We talked about what I loved, what I didn’t, what had gone well, what I could do more of, what I was scared of...and he helped clarify it all for me.

I had all the thoughts and knowledge in my head, but Kevin’s more process orientated and he helped me get it all out and put it to work as a plan of action. That built my confidence and overcome some of the imposter type feelings that were holding me back from taking a prominent role.

And I focused on what I felt was important to me, championing women and bringing them together.

A conversation that taught me something

It’s important to learn from your mistakes, and to talk about those mistakes. I found that out a few years ago, when I had a series of, well, difficult conversations with the people who worked with me.

Long story short, I wasn’t creating the right environment for them to thrive. I was trying to do everything and not giving others the support and space they needed. They felt they couldn’t talk to me, or be honest, and so they left. It felt personal, it was painful.

But it was an opportunity to learn, to figure out where I was going wrong. I was saying the right words but I wasn’t following them up with action. I needed to be more vulnerable and open, to communicate better, and to trust people. That’s the culture I wanted to create.

So I had to talk about where I’d gone wrong, I had to show up as myself, and make sure I was taking the team with me even when things were tough. That’s what’s important - especially in small businesses - you have to always communicate well. There’s nowhere to hide.

There were tears, for sure, but I diagnosed the problems, and worked through them to make things better for everyone - including me!

Someone I'd like to have a career conversation with...

This is easy - Mo Gawdat! I first came across him on Elizabeth Day’s How to Fail podcast and he blew me away. He used to work for IBM, Microsoft and Google, and was incredibly successful.

He tragically lost his son about 10 years ago and that inspired him to write a book about happiness, where he applied the principles of engineering to personal satisfaction.

His take on how you can be professionally and personally successful by doing the work on yourself really resonates with me, and his ideas are fantastic. The way he brings together tech, wellbeing and work. It’s just perfect and echoes what we’re trying to do at NoBa, I could learn so much from him.

Plus he has an incredibly calming voice, I could listen to him all day!

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