A Broader View: The Winding Career of a Startup Founder

How does a religion major become a founder, investor, and mentor to multiple startups? The Hatchery invited Ashish Mistry to Emory Innovators to talk about his wide experience in tech innovation, entrepreneurship, and mentoring young companies.

Ashish Mistry is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of BLH Venture Partners, a private investment firm specializing in early-stage companies. His operating experience includes leadership roles with high-growth companies within Information Security, SaaS, and E-commerce. In addition to his current role at BLH, Mistry was Founder and CEO of KontrolFreek, an innovative lifestyle brand in the video game market that was acquired in 2020. Mistry has advised early-stage companies across the state through Georgia Tech's Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) and is also active in community organizations through current and prior board positions with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Venture Atlanta (where he was Co-Founder) and the Atlanta CEO Council, as well as through extensive committee work with local technology organizations. 

Mistry’s path to innovation seemingly began at birth. His family, full of entrepreneurs, wanted him to become a doctor so he could have a stable career. In his time at Emory, however, he developed skills that led him in a very different direction. He sampled classes in Anthropology, learned leadership lessons through Freshman Seminar, and ended up focusing on Religion to explore the world through relationship and connection.

As Ashish reflected on the crossover between his studies and his career path, he noted that “it’s less about education and more about observation…it’s about being a broad thinker.” He added that this “broader view” has contributed greatly to his ability to read people and solve problems that are relevant. His first company, Virtex Networks, came from seeing the technology issues at his current workplace and partnering with two friends from his Emory days to come up with a solution that would turn into a profitable business.

As a young founder, Ashish focused on developing his network within the Atlanta innovation ecosystem. These connections led him to the next step on his career journey – being hired on at AirDefense, another local startup. Through his role there, he realized he was “an early-stage guy,” enjoying the initial formation and early scale of a company. Since then, Ashish has been involved in both founding and mentoring startups.

Throughout the conversation, Mistry touched on what he has learned about leadership, building a team, and finding great problems to solve. He even shared his brief thoughts on the evolution of the internet and Web3, as well as what a freshman can do to start their innovation journey.

To hear more from Ashish Mistry, you can watch or listen to the conversation. To stay up-to-date on everything happening at The Hatchery, you can subscribe to our newsletter.