If You’re Not Getting a Seat at the Table, Build Your Own Table
One of my father’s creative talents is making furniture. Carpentry wasn’t his career, but something he did just for fun. My grandfather taught him how, then my father passed on those builder/maker/prototype genes to me. If we wanted something new in our house, all we had to do was sketch it and he would build it for us. It was kind of like having a 3D printer in dad form. We had mass-produced furniture at home too, but it was always more fun as a kid to design my own bookshelves, jewelry box, and barbie doll house.
Fast forward to today, I still have that build vs. buy mentality my father taught me. That if you want something, just sketch it and start building.
But what if what you want isn’t as tangible as a bookshelf? What if there are barriers to entry to get to where you want to be in your career? Perhaps you’re yearning for a promotion at work, or want to learn a new skill-set, change your industry, or maybe you day dream about starting a company?
From 2011–2013 I interviewed with 5 venture capital funds. I was politely rejected by all of them. I realize now that I didn’t fit their mold, or have an MBA, or have the advanced financial modeling skills they needed. But I had an unstoppable curiosity and knew venture capital was where I wanted to be. VC was, and still is, important to me for a lot of reasons. Mainly because I love helping startups launch and grow, recognizing patterns in people, products, and data, and analyzing how technology is impacting old industries. I was already doing those things for clients, so taking that practice in-house to a venture fund seemed like the best of both worlds.
Instead of giving up, in 2012 I started a newsletter, emailed all the VCs I knew at the time, and sent them a weekly email of what was new and next in tech. Over the next two years, I sent personal email invites to grow the list, and made friends with dozens of early stage startups to help them get exposure. Through the newsletter, I became the unofficial analyst for 50 investors and 800 people working in tech, media and advertising. Four years later, I am forever thankful that this newsletter brought me clients, new friends, and the opportunities to have worked with 4 venture capital funds.
If you genuinely want something, or think your product should exist in the world, don’t wait for permission, a paycheck, or funding to get started.
Build your own table.
Your table could be…
A meetup — to build a community of people with shared interests and goals.
A newsletter — to share content, insights, and spark thoughtful discussions.
A podcast––to share a series of stories through voice and conversation.
A book––to share your unique insights and lessons learned in your industry.
A non-profit — to put more good into the world than you take.
An agency — to scale the services you offered as a consultant, or to build on the work you did for clients at a larger agency.
A company — to build a product that impacts peoples lives, and as a platform to give more people a seat at the table on your team.
A fund — this one isn’t as easy as ‘sketch and build’, but if you really want to invest capital in the next generation of startups, start investing your time into helping founders and companies today.
