Venture Capital - KeynesYouDigIt/Knowledge GitHub Wiki

Getting In

THERE IS NO APPLICATION. NO TRADITIONAL WAY.

OFFER VALUE to the community and founders,, do this for years, maybe you get an invite. It's all abotu deal flow - you know good entrepreneurs, you can close deals with them.

Via aqcuired slack. Vincent Buscarello ey! Has anyone done the transition from the engineer role to VC/investment? The most obvious path I see so far are engineering partner roles where most of the work is tech due diligence. Any opinions? :eyes: 1

14 replies

Jeremy Diamond 25 days ago Angel investing to build a track record and writing to build a reputation

Kimia Hamidi 25 days ago @Jeremy Diamond does check size matter? I imagine it’s more about track record than dollars deployed?

Jeremy Diamond 25 days ago Check size doesn't matter

Arnaud Benard 25 days ago Thanks for the feedback. Is an investment considered successful after you get the return as an angel. If that’s the case, it could take 5-7 years to start building a reputation.

Jeremy Diamond 25 days ago Not necessarily

Ben Rush 24 days ago Expanding on Jeremy’s point, a big part of your track record as an angel is about demonstrating your access to high quality deal flow. If you have a few investments that are demonstrably “successful” by VC standards (ie hot companies, big mark ups, etc) that can be enough to get you in the door. (edited)

Arnaud Benard 24 days ago Thanks for the tips!

Nils Ziehn 24 days ago I can only speak about the German market and 2 funds (both >1bn aum): after introducing a couple of my friends and them receiving investments from the fund, they have both offered me principle positions. A friend of mine took this path and 2 years after being principle became junior partner. When talking to them about who they are looking for, they have the following criteria: people need to bring deal flow (knowing up and coming founders) founders want to get investments from you and want to have you on their board you can show that you are smart and pick winners — my friend was given 3 markets with a lot of startup activity and he was supposed to pick the startups that are going to win and pitch them to the investment committee :+1: 1

Josh Chaitin-Pollak 22 days ago the question I always wonder about is how do you bootstrap deal flow? Once you are known, people will come to you and I think connections come easier, but when you are just starting... how do you source deals that haven't already been shopped around? Also sent to the channel

Vincent Buscarello 3 days ago Josh's question here is really good, I think i'm still curious about it! anyone have a thought? the question I always wonder about is how do you bootstrap deal flow? Once you are known, people will come to you and I think connections come easier, but when you are just starting... how do you source deals that haven't already been shopped around? Also sent to the channel

Jeremy Diamond 3 days ago The easiest way is to tap your existing network of founders -- if you have one, make up a way to be regularly talking with and to them. From newsletters to coffees. If you don't have that, you need to go where founders are. This might mean lots of pitch competitions and events where there's a lot of fluff and noise, but you'll get to be around people who have or might soon start companies, so you won't start out with proprietary deal flow but you'll develop relationships over time. To capitalize on those relationships, you should be bringing something that's not necessarily in abundant supply. Used to be as easy as "I have access to a checkbook." Now it could be vetted access to pools of talent, intros to customers, guidance on how to choose a professional service without the conflict of providing that professional service (or at least not to that particular founder), or something else. For me, I realized I was really good at pitch decks, founders hated doing them, and there was so much conflicting advice out there that it was effectively useless, so the value I brought was a curated, informed opinion on how a pitch can or should go. Which sounds so dumb because people rag on pitch decks all the damn time, but turned out to be incredibly valuable, so after I would help a founder with that, they would tell their friends about it and send them to me, and that's how my network began to compound. :eyes: 3 :drake-like: 1

Also sent to the channel

Jeremy Diamond 3 days ago Now that I think about it, Leo Polovets from Susa did this too. He had money from his LinkedIn days and access to that network. He blogged about VC with a decidedly technical slant. And he offered to help interview your first technical hires. Huge value add. (edited) codingvc.comcodingvc.com Coding VC blog by Leo Polovets of Susa Ventures Posts on startups and startup investing from the perspective of a software engineer turned VC. :+1: 1

Jeffrey Meyerson 22 hours ago Susa Portfolio so strong Mux seed, Robinhood... =0

Jeremy Diamond 22 hours ago Flexpor