Strongest investors around? Inner City Weightlifting thinks so.

By Sarah Reed

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Sarah Reed is General Counsel at RA Capital Management. She is the only lawyer to have received the National Venture Capital Association’s Outstanding Service Award, for her leadership role in conceiving of and spearheading the NVCA Model Legal Documents

The RA Capital crew during Inner City Weightlifting’s 2021 Fittest Company Challenge. Photo credit: Joseph Irizarry.

October 26, 2021

Forgive us, but this week we can’t help but share some RA Capital news. 

Last Friday, Inner City Weightlifting (ICW) hosted their annual “Fittest Company Challenge.” ICW is a Kendall Square organization focused on amplifying the voices and agency of people who have been impacted by systemic racism and mass incarceration by empowering them to become qualified personal trainers. 

After coming in second place in both 2019 and 2020 (behind an all-male team!), RA was even more determined to get the “W” this year. And we’re happy to report that we pulled it off! Specifically, the team captained by TechAtlas Associate Director Cris Montero came in first place and the team captained by General Counsel Sarah Reed came in second place. 

In Sarah’s words:

In truth, I knew we’d won ICW’s 2021 Fittest Company Challenge before the games even started. How? Because our teams embodied so many of the values that make RA Capital great. 

1. When the call went out, more than 20 RA employees raised their hand to participate, ready to do a punishing number of push-ups, or burpees, or whatever. None of the competition events are disclosed in advance. We embrace the unfamiliar.

2. Our teams’ participants ranged in age from 23 to 57 and managed to represent all the cogs in RA’s machine (TechAtlas, Invest, Venture, Ops, and RAVen). We were evenly balanced between men and women (including one pregnant woman, natch), overweight only in PhDs. We know that our diversity makes us stronger. We expect and strive to inspire the best in everyone.

3. Each team’s participants were assigned totally randomly by Executive Assistant Phi Thach - she was brand new to RA, so we asked her to assign the teams in order to avoid selection bias.  Amazingly, in the first event (400 meter relay), our two teams came out with exactly the same time, down to the second. Sure, we could have assigned all of our strongest people to one team to advance our chances of victory. But at RA, we'd count that as a loss, not a win, because we value our relationships and are positive, respectful, and open-minded. 

4. When we tried to talk TechAtlas Associate Mike Gillespie out of participating remotely at high altitude in Utah, he did some research and sent us a scientific journal article with this BLATT (“bottom line at the top” - RA’s preferred communication style): "Lower oxygen content at altitude may negatively affect long-distance running, but for sprints, the reduction in air density overcompensates to improve race times." In fact, Mike ran his 400m 13 seconds slower than Usain Bolt's best time, coming in one second ahead of Venture Principal Nathaniel Brooks Horwitz, who was disadvantaged by running at sea level. We are data-driven and challenge assumptions.

5. For the burn-out final event, Cris counseled that we should distribute the punishing number of lunge squats, burpees, tricep dips, etc. among as many teammates as possible, rotating them in and out quickly so that each one stayed fresh. Instead, my team stood staring and shouting with glee as Investment Analyst Brian Lewandowski cranked out 50 tricep dips like a piston. It was marvelous to watch, but we lost 4 seconds to Cris's team in that event. We admit our mistakes and share lessons learned.

6. When Software Developer Sam Chowdhury sent us a picture of the huge surgical scar in his hand following a recent break, we said, "Hmm, maybe you shouldn’t join." But when we asked him how it happened and he said "Doing explosive decline push-ups," we said, "Oh yeah, you will be perfect for our team." We preserve the ability to change our minds.

7. We said to Venture Principal Laura Tadvalkar, "Umm, please, no need to be a hero, we know you are pregnant,” but she just smiled her cherubic smile and did 79 (legit) squats in 60 seconds. We address the elephant in the room.

8. And below you’ll find some photos from our event. Obviously, we have a bias for action. We take fun seriously. And we have the best t-shirts. (Design courtesy of Venture Operations Associate Ben Hicks.)

Think you can disrupt our dominance in next year’s war for the title? Let Inner City Weightlifting know! We’re more than ready for the challenge.

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