Author: Haseeb
Translation: TechFlow
If I were a young person wanting to enter the VC industry, this is what I would do:
Write.
Write short analyses on Twitter. Don’t write those generic market philosophy articles, because those will be seen as AI-generated junk or second-hand research. Unless you are exceptionally talented (which you probably aren’t), no one will read them.
Do original research, focusing on a specific company or niche sector. If you want to write about robots, that’s still too broad.
Narrow it down further—humanoid robots, medical robots, military robots, etc. Go into such granular detail that most people wouldn’t even care. If it’s something you can find through a Google search, it’s not detailed enough.
You can’t easily find a way to do "original research." This isn’t something you can accomplish in a university library.
You have to talk to employees at these companies, interview journalists who report on these companies, pay for industry-specific private research/newsletters, and follow all the employees/anonymous accounts gossiping on Twitter. Piece together a picture that someone reading TechCrunch wouldn’t see.
Then write about this sector and the leading and emerging startups, tag or DM every mainstream institutional investor covering your field (you can find them because they’ve invested in a company in this sector).
If they show interest, proactively invite everyone you can for coffee. Someone will always accept the invitation.
Do this enough times and you’ll build a reputation, and eventually a VC firm will give you an offer. You don’t need to go to business school, you don’t need an outstanding angel investment portfolio, you don’t need anything.
"Getting good deal flow" is great, of course, but most people just can’t do it. If you’re already in the Stanford undergraduate circle, you probably don’t need advice on getting into VC. But the above strategy—in principle, anyone can do it. All it takes is extraordinary execution and the willingness to do the work of a junior VC when no one is asking you to.
(While doing all this, the best option is to work at a company in the sector you’re chasing. But depending on your background, that’s not always possible. The good news is, VC doesn’t require any specific background. There are a lot of weirdos in VC, myself included.)
I assure you, everyone wants to hire people who can do the above. But very few candidates have this level of execution.
VC is not a "standardized" profession. Hiring is casual, firms are usually small and don’t expand, and there’s no standard path. If you’re willing to be a "weirdo," that’s a good thing for you. What VCs have in common is a passion for startups and understanding emerging industries. If you show that you already have this, the path to VC will open up for you.
