Inspired By Example is a podcast about the heart of leadership — revealing conversations with leaders across business, public service, education, and the military, asking five essential questions about who shaped them, what tested them, and what values ground them. In this episode, Will and Rich's guest is Amish Jani, a top-tier venture capitalist and founding partner at FirstMark Capital, one of New York’s most respected early-stage investment firms. Amish has played a key role in shaping the modern tech landscape, backing companies like Shopify, Frame.io, Pendo, and Gravie, among many others.

Recognized by CB Insights and the New York Times as one of the top 100 venture capitalists globally, Amish has also been named to Business Insider’s Seed 100 and 50 Most Important VCs in New York lists.

Beyond investing, Amish co-founded CloudNY, a premier summit for cloud CEOs, and leads the FirstMark Founders Guild, a private community of the city’s most promising entrepreneurs. His career reflects not just a sharp eye for innovation, but a deep commitment to founder development, long-term thinking and principled leadership.

About the hosts:

Rich is co-founder of Alignd, an intuitive SaaS platform that simplifies how teams turn strategy into action. He's also a podcaster (The Age Old Question), a musician (The Sweet Remains) and a husband and father of five boys.

Will is founder of Next Frontier Capital, a VC-firm headquartered in Bozeman, Montana. He’s passionate about supporting entrepreneurs to create companies of impact, utility and value. He's an outdoorsman, a soccer fan, husband and father of two sons. 

This podcast is presented by Alignd and Next Frontier Capital.