Molly Mielke McCarthy is on a quest to find exceptional people before the world catches on. I talked to @mollyfmielke about the art of "peopling", playing your own game, vocation, and why great founders are often the least legible. Today, she runs @mothfund, where she backs founders at the beginning. In the past, she's worked across design, product, and editorial at @figma, @NotionHQ, @stripepress, @browsercompany, and scouted for @sequoia. Her background in film and design echoes in the people she backs and in the quality of her curation and writing. Molly is people-centric yet fiercely individual, intuitive yet pragmatic, and truth-seeking yet full of care. We discuss: - Why it takes 3 months for her to know someone well enough to invest - Why authenticity is magnetic - The difference between agency and ambition - Why commerciality is a lens you can learn - Illegibility as private confidence, not public uncertainty - How your brand is a bell in other people's heads - Vocation as "stalking your calling" and then yielding to it - Why we should focus on doing something rather than being someone Timestamps: 0:00 - Opening Highlights 1:29 - Intro to Molly 3:36 - Thanks to Notion 5:14 - Start: People, Spikeyness, and Discernment 21:36 - Agency and Ambition 34:45 - Commerciality 49:19 - Investing, Feedback Loops, and Creating a Bat Signal 59:46 - Coaching and Working with Young People 1:06:54 - Self-Knowledge, Uncertainty, "Should," Others' Acceptance, Motivations 1:16:38 - Illegibility & Legibility, Principles, Authentic Service 1:29:28 - Friends, Seeing in the Third Person, Femininity in a Masculine World, Love 1:42:07 - Grab Bag: Art, Catholicism, Gratitude, Beauty...