Fraser was recruited last year to join the prolific venture-capital firm Benchmark.Vanessa Fraser is no stranger to high stakes.
"A lot of successful people take big risks and surround themselves with high performers," Fraser told Insider of how her professional-track team was similar to her VC firm."I don't know what the next stop is in the journey, but if I can just take those risks and surround myself with other high-level people, something interesting will come of it."As a student-athlete at Stanford University, Fraser's running career kept her busy.
While she was fascinated with the world of venture capital, Fraser's growing interest would soon take a back seat: Her success on Stanford's track-and-field team drew eyes from the professional-running world, and after graduating in 2018, she joined one of the top professional teams in the US — Nike's Bowerman Track Club — to run full time alongside a group of Olympians and world-class athletes.
The opportunity, though unheard of for an athlete in her prime years of competition, was too good to pass up. Then it's a quick change — sometimes in her car — and then off to work for the day at Benchmark's office in the Tenderloin neighborhood. "Running has grounded me into a more disciplined routine, which translated to higher functioning and higher performance," she said."The biggest surprise to me is that I'm almost less tired than when I was a full-time professional athlete. I'm more mentally stimulated."