How Alex Pall of The Chainsmokers remixed his skills to become a venture capitalist

The Path is a video series where I chat with some of the most influential leaders in the world exploring the successes, missteps, and key pivotal moments that shaped their professional paths. It’s through these authentic stories that we can learn how to navigate our own career journeys.

My next guest is Alex Pall of the Grammy Award-winning duo The Chainsmokers. 

Alex’s path to becoming a multi-platinum recording artist took some interesting turns — from early aspirations to be a basketball player, to studying art history with the idea of following in his art dealer father’s footsteps. While he was working in a New York art gallery, he returned to the side hustle of his teen years, DJing in his free time to make extra money. He ultimately realized he loved electronic music more than the art world and decided to make a career of it. 

In recent years, he made yet another turn. He and fellow Chainsmoker Drew Taggart launched a production company and founded a venture capital firm. 

It’s perhaps an overstated phrase that if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life, but that doesn’t make it any less true. A big reason why Alex has been so successful is because he’s pursuing things he’s passionate about. He told me, “I work like 16 hours every single day, but none of it feels like work.” 

Another key component to Alex’s success is his growth mindset. When I asked him how he approached becoming serious players in the VC space, he recalled, “Acronyms were flying left and right that I just did not have any grasp on, but I think like there was no ego. I was prepared to learn and listen and comfortable asking the dumb questions.” As a result, Alex found a lot of people willing to share their advice and learnings. The effort has paid off. Mantis Venture Capital is thriving with investments in finance, music, healthcare, education and AI.

Alex’s takeaway: “If you're a curious person and you really are passionate about something, those things really, they pick up fast.”

My takeaways: Pay attention to red flags: Alex realized his lack of enthusiasm for his art gallery job was a red flag and he was just going through the motions instead of doing what he was passionate about: music. 

Make the tough choices: Once Alex decided to pursue music, he went all in on dedicating himself to working on his craft. He and Drew took big risks in striking out on their own to continue to evolve their music and it paid off. They have dozens of platinum records and even a Grammy.

You can growth hack your career: Similar to building a business or launching a new product, there is a way to growth hack your career by focusing on how your unique skills can provide value to a job, no matter how different it might be from what you've done previously. He and Drew are leveraging their success as The Chainsmokers to broaden their business interests and take on an entirely new industry.

Alex is a great example of how a person can blend different skills and experience with a willingness to learn to find success in any career path.