The first year was a blur of sleepless nights and impossible juggling.
I hired a nanny, then two, then three.
Not because I did not want to raise my children, but because I had companies to build and limited time to do it.
I worked from home when they were babies, taking calls with a baby monitor in my ear, reviewing contracts while breastfeeding, making million-dollar decisions on three hours of sleep.
People said it was impossible to be a good mother and a successful businesswoman.
I proved them wrong every single day.
By the time the children were two, my portfolio had grown to twenty-seven companies.
Fifteen of them were already profitable.
Eight were on track for initial public offerings.
Four had been acquired for amounts that made my initial investments look like pocket change.
The tech world started to notice.
They did not know my name yet. I had deliberately stayed in the shadows, using shell companies and intermediaries.
But they knew someone was quietly building an empire.
Someone with an uncanny ability to pick winners.
Someone the smartest founders in Silicon Valley wanted to work with.
The financial press started calling me “The Phantom Investor.”