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Key Takeaways Alex Roetter taught himself how to code as a child, setting the foundation for a lifelong builder’s mindset.
He spent years at Google and Twitter, now X, honing his coding and interpersonal skills.
Now he works as a general partner at venture capital firm Moxxie Ventures, backing high-growth startups.
In the late 1980s, 10-year-old Alex Roetter sat in front of an Apple IIe computer with nothing more than a programming manual and a love for video games. Without formal instruction, he taught himself to code, creating a model rocket simulator and a rudimentary version of Pong — early signs of a builder’s instinct that would shape his career.
That curiosity carried him from Stanford’s undergraduate and graduate computer science programs to early roles at Google, to leading engineering at Twitter, now X, and eventually into venture capital as a general partner at Moxxie Ventures. After more than a decade as an angel investor, Roetter has developed a clear perspective on what makes a startup worth betting on.
The following as-told-to interview has been edited for clarity and concision.
Alex Roetter. Credit: Moxxie Ventures
Early beginnings
Apple made a computer called the Apple IIe, and my dad brought one home. Those computers came with a BASIC programming manual in the box, which is funny to think about now — imagine buying a laptop at the Apple Store that came with a programming manual.
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