Despite VC value-add being a decades old concept, “platform” continues to be the hottest thing in early-stage venture right now. What does that actually mean for your fund?

In the past six months alone, I have had 5+ first-time fund managers reach out and ask,

“Is platform something we should consider? What would it look like for our fund?”

Obviously, there is no “one size fits all” solution — platform (or one of its many synonyms — our community is still emerging, so there are no standard job definitions/titles) will differ firm-to-firm. …

I’ve been a proud member of the CMX community since 2014 — the hub for the community industry. (How meta — a community for community builders!)

I attended my first CMX Summit in 2014, as a fresh-faced member of the Frontline Ventures team. There, I began my foray into the CMX ecosystem — not yet fully realising or understanding that helping our portfolio of early-stage European startups scale means intentionally building a peer-to-peer learning community. …

I was 16 when I first joined a startup in Boston.

I had hardly any tangible skills. I hadn’t a clue about venture capital. I didn’t even know what the word “startup” really meant. I just knew that ambitious little 16-year-old Kim wanted to learn, and learn fast.

That’s how I fell into the world of early-stage technology. It was an incredibly steep learning curve, and it took me years to feel comfortable with the terminology, the dialogue, the community, and the larger startup ecosystem. It was (and still occasionally is!) very intimidating.

As the Head of Platform at Frontline Ventures, I regularly speak at classes, lectures, and societies all throughout Dublin. I meet Irish students everyday going through the same learning process I went through as a university student just years ago. It is all testament to the vibrant startup culture growing from the bottom-up here. …

In the past 2 years as Frontline’s Head of Platform, I’ve seen an incredible explosion of similar roles at other VCs/funds in Europe. It is a signal of the growing recognition of the power of VC “value-add” when it comes to accelerating companies’ progress on a global scale.

We are called many things — Director of Community, VP of Platform, Portfolio Manager, etc. — but we effectively all do the same thing: help our portfolio of companies scale. Our focus can vary — from tactical, helpful content and meaningful business development to investor introductions and in-house recruiting support.

Not mentioning the obvious (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.) and those that are deal flow/reporting-related (Gust, Visible, etc.), here are the tools we cannot live without! …

Debunking the top 9 myths for EU startups on the road to the US

For the majority of European technology companies, expanding to the US is a “when,” not an if.

The US accounts for 50% of global R&D investment and has the cultural diversity, reputation for innovation, global reach, talent base, infrastructure, and scientific/educational institutions to serve as a base for innovative companies around the world.

Despite the US being an inevitable reality for most European founders, it is a difficult move — one riddled with high expenses, fragmented communication, frequent travel, and plenty of uncertainty. Frontline consistently heard this from entrepreneurs who had completed the journey, so we put together the Setting Up in the US Playbook. …

The tech community is funny — we love to compare ecosystems.

We even give them cute monikers: how does Silicon Valley stack up versus Silicon Alley, versus Silicon Roundabout, versus Silicon Prairie, versus Silicon XYZ…

Maybe it’s just semantics, but it often feels like a futile attempt to reconcile each city alongside another — as if tech ecosystems can be squared away and encapsulated in a two-word, headline-catching phrase.

Coming from two mature tech hubs (Boston & NYC), I often get asked, “How does Dublin compare?” …

In my 6+ years working in early-stage tech, I have had the privilege of working alongside some really wonderful people at various startups and VC firms in NYC and Boston.

And as a recent university graduate (shout out to NYU Class of ’14!), it is not uncommon to receive emails from university students looking to break into tech and to connect with those aforementioned people. Props to them — I oftentimes wish I had been more ballsy in my ‘asks’ throughout college.

However, I often find that these requests are vague and undefined — leaving me to do a lot of the legwork for said student. …

At Frontline Ventures, we are wholly committed to “community”— the portfolio of entrepreneurs we have invested in, the larger European tech context from which we were born, and the LPs who fuel our journey.

We are not the only ones — many VC firms around the world have embraced this idea. “Community” within the context of venture capital is taking off, and early-stage funds are realising that immense value can be added by creating a network of companies.

In this piece, I will examine the trends leading up to this explosion of VC communities, its dot-com era origins, the precedents currently set in the US/Europe, and why Frontline Ventures is investing in “platform.” …