Former VC Who Won Two Olympic Golds Talks Tech & Following Her Cycling Dream

In 2021, Kristen Faulkner left her job as an investor at Threshold Ventures to become a professional cyclist. Now she’s a two-time Olympic gold medalist at the just-finished Paris Olympics who sees parallels between her venture career (which also included three years at Bessemer Venture Partners) and how she cycles, especially when it comes to her high-stakes closing move: The “last minute attack.”

“I love to go all-in,” Faulkner told Fortune. “I love to catch people by surprise. I love catching people off-guard, because it’s a mental game, too. And then I love when people say: ‘Wow, she went all-in and backed herself on this —and it worked.’ Maybe that’s from a background in VC. Maybe I’ve always been that way. But it’s just how I am. I love ‘go big or go home.’”

In an interview from Paris, a day after she’d won a second gold, Faulkner spoke about what it’s like to win it all, her decision to leave venture capital behind, and why her story isn’t a fairy tale.