Rex Woodbury

Rex is a Principal at Index Ventures, investing across seed, early-stage, and growth. He focuses on consumer internet and consumer software businesses, with interests in digital communication, social media, and the creator economy.

On his morning routine.

On Mondays, I’m usually up by 5.45. We have a 7.00 AM global deal flow meeting every Monday for both the London and San Francisco offices, so my Mondays start off a little earlier.

During the rest of the week, I’m up around 6.30 and starting work around 7.30 or so. I have a big breakfast with coffee (lots of coffee), and I like to protect that first hour of the day. 

I usually read the news and do email. I’m big on inbox zero, so I try to pare down my inbox as much as possible before meetings start.

If I don’t get ahead of it, I’ll be playing catch-up all day.

On the hardest parts of venture.

One of the hardest parts of venture is knowing what the high-ROI uses of your time are. Is it meeting more founders, talking to other investors, stepping back to research, and form a thesis? 

I try to make sure I’m spending as much time as possible with the smartest people — often founders and operators, but often people outside the startup world too.

The 99th-percentile people challenge you and are often magnets for other talented people. 

Venture can often feel solitary, especially during the pandemic.

I’m lucky to work with an incredible group of people at Index. My partners are wonderful people — thoughtful, compassionate, team-oriented. They make the job fun, and I’m lucky to work with them.

On working weekends.

I usually work for a couple of hours each day over the weekend. Every once in a while, when I feel a little burnt out, I’ll take Saturday day completely off.

But I also try to save some of the more relaxing and engaging “work” for the weekends. A big part of being a venture investor is reading and staying curious about the world, and I use the weekend to catch up on reading.

During the week, I save longer articles to the app “Pocket” and then I’ll read through them on Saturday and Sunday. I look forward to it every week.

On consuming information.

I’ve always loved reading and learning. Every day, I’ll visit NYT, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, TechCrunch, and a handful of other sites. 

I’m a big believer that reading not only helps you be more knowledgeable at work but also makes you a better conversationalist and a more interesting person to be around. 

A lot of investing is about forming a view on where the world is going, and reading constantly is key to that.

On creative writing.

My dad has always been a really creative person, and he’s published a couple novels. When I was young, he designed a family project called our “15 minutes.”

Every day, my dad, brother, and I would go to separate corners of the house and write for 15 minutes. After a year, we’d each written a book. 

My writing was pretty terrible back then, but he was trying to show us that little daily habits add up. And he made us fall in love with writing. 

I still do a lot of creative writing today. In tandem, I love reading fiction.

For me, the best ideas come from reading fiction, not business books. (I have a working theory that 90% of business books could've been a Medium post.)

On his fitness regimen.

I’ve always been an evening workout person and I’ll usually work out around 6.30 PM. I prefer the evening because it gives me a chance to synthesize the day.

I usually lift weights for 45 minutes while listening to a podcast. I’m a huge podcast person and will listen to anything about business, politics, startups, pop culture. After I lift, I’ll run for 45 mins while listening to music. 

I try to work out 6 or 7 days a week.

Working out — and especially running — is my creative time, when my mind is in flow and when I have my best ideas.

On his nightly routine.

Post-workout, my partner and I put on some music and make dinner together. We catch up on our days while we cook and eat. 

Then we both work together — usually on the couch or at the dining room table — for another hour or two before getting ready for bed.

I’ll usually read the NYT for 30 minutes in bed, before reading a novel for 15-20 minutes to help decompress. I’m out most nights between 10.30 and 11 PM.

I religiously try to get 8 hours of sleep.