I am less than one week away from starting my new role at Investible in their new $100M climate tech venture capital fund; I am incredibly excited.
As a founder and former program manager of INCUBATE, a startup accelerator, I've been fortunate to interact with numerous venture capitalists (from analysts to general partners).
These people have always amazed me with their transparency in AMA's, their willingness to support founders wherever they can find the time (irrespective of intent to invest in said founders), and their lack of devil horns 😈 (despite the stories from those who have, generally, not considered both sides of the coin).
I've had some awesome interactions with the team's at Main Sequence, Uniseed, Blackbird, AirTree, Folklore, Rampersand, Stoic and much more.
After deciding to pursue a career in VC in mid-2021, I asked myself, "what did I know about their day-to-day?" The answer (put simply)... they invest in startups. So, not very much.
I needed to learn more.
I recall asking John Henderson, the general partner at AirTree, for some tips on how to learn more about VC, to which I was told, "Honestly, I think VC is an apprenticeship business. There's really no substitute for doing it."
With some final goals to wrap up at INCUBATE, I set my sights on joining a fund at the start of 2022.
Over the past 6-months, I began to peel back the layers of the onion 🧅 (using a Shrek reference) and have been blown away by all the layers.
This included online courses and reading multiple books; however, this process highlighted how little is known about the VC world in startup communities.
Additionally, I struggled to fill my knowledge gaps with readily accessible resources. Apart from Venture Deals, most books were too shallow.
To peel back those additional layers, I had to purchase larger textbooks (like you used at university). At times, it got dense.
Horribly dense.
It also highlighted how John was right (though I never doubted it). There was so much to learn, and there will continue to be so much to learn in my investing role.
Demystifying VC
My goal at INCUBATE had always been to demystify the startup process for founders. Show them that they can do it. They don't need to be some magical being.
Now, moving into VC, I would like to transfer that principle to my new role.
In this blog, WTF is VC? I will share concepts that I have learnt over the past 6-months and new ones as I learn them. Additionally, I will share insights on what the day-to-day looks like.
My ultimate goal is to share this knowledge while removing the dense nature of financial textbooks, making it more enjoyable to wrap your head around the concepts.
I aim to get one post out per month, but if I come across more than one crucial concept worth sharing, I'll post more.
So, if you're a founder looking to understand more about what happens on the other side of the table, or you'd like to get into VC, please make sure you subscribe to WTF is VC?