Product to VC: In Their Words
Table of Contents
– Translating Your PM Skills
– Making The Most of Your Role
– Break Into VC
– Early vs Late Stage Operating
– Words of Wisdom
– Key Takeaways
– About the Investors
When we made the transition from PM to VC last year, it was a lonely path with little to no guidance or support. We’re here to change that. We interviewed 8 partners and investors at top VC funds across the US to learn how they were able to make the switch and make the most of their product backgrounds to become better investors.
We can’t thank these individuals enough for giving us their time and sharing their thoughts and opinions. There is no “right way” to break into venture, but we hope that any PMs looking to make the jump to VC in the future can use this as a starting point on their journey. Without further ado…
Translating Your PM Skills to Investing
“What is something that you learned as a PM that has helped you as a VC?
Amit Garg (Tau): “As a PM, when you’re building a product, you often will utilize techniques or patterns from other companies on how best to build parts of your product and successfully launch. As a VC, you have to utilize this same pattern recognition to determine which investments could be successful. Be constantly open to learning and digesting new information to inform and refine that decision-making process.”
Vanessa Larco (NEA): “Be incredibly data-driven, both qualitative and quantitative, and don’t have a bias for one over the other. On the qualitative side, gather as much market data, founder references, how a team will execute, talking to prospective customers, etc. On the quantitative side, think about the team’s alpha and beta cohorts, the metrics the team wants to track, and the data they’re collecting. Ask yourself: are these the right metrics to add value to their customers?”
Aditi Maliwal (Upfront): “It’s allowed me to help founders think through user journeys, product discovery, and the importance of user research. It’s critical for founders to build this mindset early on in their company’s journey. The user’s voice is so important in determining what to build next, whether you’re a PM at a 1000 person company or a solo founder trying to get your product off the ground.”
Minnie Ingersoll (TenOneTen): “When evaluating companies, I often think back to when I would interview potential hires at Google and Shift. In those interviews, I found it was best to focus my questions on understanding someone’s approach and mindset to building a product. I still use that experience today when evaluating founders — what is your mental model for building your company? If you have the opportunity to participate in the hiring process at your current company, I would recommend it!”
Making The Most of Your Current Role
“What’s something you wished you focused on more as a PM before becoming a VC?”
Leshika Samarasinghe (Twine): “When you’re operating, it’s hard not to be super heads down, but it’s helpful to take time every now and then to stay plugged into the broader ecosystem that you plan on investing in. Whether that’s through informal or formal startup advisory or just connecting with counterparts at other companies to help meet new folks and gain exposure to different approaches. You learn a lot from how other operators execute and can gain valuable connections to help build your network.”
Hunter Walk (Homebrew): “Make sure you have enough experience as a PM. I’m glad that I stayed in a product leadership role as long as I did. People often leave product management too early; they may not have been able to build the skills or experience to add value to their portfolio companies or be able to critically evaluate all aspects of a team’s product. Make sure you spend enough years as a PM so you have high credibility and a large network to support your future investing role.”
Sherman Leung (Alleycorp): “Especially for early-stage VC, I think focusing on multiple 0 -> 1 product launches is important to help build the mentality of a founder finding product-market fit. Many PMs often don’t get much experience building — try and find projects where you can really learn about all aspects of what it takes to build something from the ground up.”
Diana Kimball Berlin (Matrix): “Pay more attention to the competitive landscape. I wish I had taken the initiative to ask customers, founders, and investors if they needed support in building out a market landscape. You not only give yourself a reason to create a valuable deliverable, but you also have an excuse to have a better understanding of competitors in the market.”
The First Steps to Break In VC
“What are some specific steps you took prior to trying to find a job in VC?”
Hunter Walk (Homebrew): “Have a plan for what you want to do in the investing world. I knew that I didn’t want to join another firm and focus on a specific vertical. I loved operating and building and knew that I wanted to build my own firm to begin investing. Going from 0 to 1 is what truly got me excited about this industry, and I wanted to help as many founders as I could navigate that process.”
Minnie Ingersoll (TenOneTen): “Work in the same industry you want to invest in. If you’re already working at a company, you would invest in, that’s great. If you can’t, do side projects to understand those industries or find ways to switch internally or to another company. As a PM, I did not do a lot of consumer products, UI look and feel, and I shied away from consumers. If I wanted to be better at evaluating certain companies, I should have been a PM for those types of products/companies.”
Mandy Howard (Foundry): “Connect with your local tech ecosystem and find a room of individuals that you can easily build relationships with. I ran a Techstars hack-a-thon weekend with the intention of helping connect founders to other mentors in LA and ended up meeting individuals who got me excited about a career in venture. Don’t be transactional or think, ‘what can this person do for me,’ but instead focus on being helpful and trying to learn from them.”
Amit Garg (Tau): “For me, the biggest benefit was attending business school after being a PM. Business school was the transition time for me to decide what I wanted to do in the future. I got exposed to a lot more opportunities, people, and ways of thinking. To be a successful VC, I do believe you have to specialize, but at the same time, you have to be very well-rounded. You need to be an ‘A+’ in a very specific vertical/practice, but you also need to be at least a ‘B+’ in all other aspects of the business to be a successful investor and partner for founders.”
Early Stage vs. Late Stage Operating Experience
“Does the stage of the company you worked at matter before you transition to venture capital?”
Leshika Samarasinghe (Twine): “It probably depends on the stage of investment you hope to focus on, but ideally, a mix of sizes. I was lucky to have experienced ridiculous growth in Google’s early days and seen excellent team building and scaling. I then went to smaller and smaller teams and firms in my career because I realized I love the messy early stages, and that’s where I wanted to focus my investing. However, it was good to have experienced the growth to know how to set a good foundation.”
Diana Kimball Berlin (Matrix): “Here’s a sketch of a strong PM-to-VC background: start your career at a large company to see how ‘companies scale the right way,’ then join a small company, build quickly, and be part of their growth story. Develop your own opinion on what stage of the company you like best. And know that while every startup starts small, if you pick well, the ones you bet on will become successful and end up much bigger than they started.”
Hunter Walk (Homebrew): “The perfect PM background is 2–5 stints at a company near their inflection points, with management experience at year 6–8 and then switch to the venture. The best place to be is in a mid to late-stage, category-killing startup. It’s okay if you get there series B and C, but your career choices indicate something. It’s telling if you picked 3 bad companies in a row to work at.”
Mandy Howard (Foundry): “Be a PM at more than one startup — you will have vastly different experiences that can shape your view on how to build a company. I don’t believe that stage is as important, but more so being part of a company that is growing rapidly and allowing you as a product leader to grow as well.”
Final Words of Wisdom
“Any other advice you’d give a PM trying to become a VC?”
Sherman Leung (Alleycorp): “Try to do the job of what you think a VC does with your unique product lens — offer founders early product feedback, be a thought leader in your industry in terms of how to find (and scale) product-market-fit, build your social capital by offering helpful intros between people in your network launching companies, draft a market map of companies in your area of interest. If you can show VCs that you’re basically doing their job before you even start in a role, it goes a long way to show that you’ve been doing your (and their) homework!”
Diana Kimball Berlin (Matrix): “The best thing to do is write in public, develop and share your perspective. You don’t want to count on being discovered; public posts help you no matter what. Beyond writing in public, develop a point of view. What are you actually excited about and want to invest in? Like Dale Carnegie said: ‘To be interesting, be interested.’”
Vanessa Larco (NEA): “First and foremost: stay humble. Get a lot of good feedback (both positive and negative) from individuals in the industry. Reach out to folks who have made the jump and can provide you with actionable feedback. Venture is tough because there is no set feedback loop like when you are a PM — it’s hard to know if you’re doing the job well. So, be kind and respectful — everyone’s time is valuable, and make the most of the opportunities you have to speak with people on the VC side of the table.”
Aditi Maliwal (Upfront): “You have an incredible opportunity to learn from individuals that are experts in their fields. If you truly want to move to venture in the future, make the most of your time as a PM and build a network of individuals that you can rely on to give you advice and help with understanding parts of a business or a vertical that you may not have had experience in. It’s never too early to start building those relationships and often can be easier when there isn’t a pretense of being a VC.”
Key Takeaways
Much of the above has been both strategic and tactical. It’s also quite a bit of information. In true PM fashion, here is a quick TL;DR:
- Develop skills outside of product management: PMs often get laser-focused on delivering value for their companies through product. However, being an investor and building a successful company is about more than just the product. Make an effort to learn from others at your company and develop skills that PMs don’t get a lot of opportunities to explore. Learn about marketing tactics, how to think about pricing, go-to-market strategy, hiring, and recruiting — all of these experiences will make you a better investor. Formulate your own views on the best practices within those departments and get feedback on how you can improve your own thinking.
- Diversify your PM experience by working at multiple organizations: Before becoming an investor, seek out opportunities at a variety of companies and prioritize those going through inflection points. Develop an understanding of best practices at each organization and experience not only building from 0 to 1, but also scaling from 10 to 100. Once you’ve built that foundation of knowledge and credibility, prioritize working at a company in a sector and stage that you would want to invest in. Or, if you’re already there, gain as much leadership experience as possible before becoming an investor.
- Don’t wait to start building your network: Networking is a critical part of venture capital but can feel like an afterthought when you’re a PM. However, it’s never too early to start meeting more folks on both sides of the table (investors and operators). Join or host local entrepreneur and operator events, reach out to folks at other companies and learn about how they approach building or post about topics that you find fascinating on social media. There is no “right way” to go about networking, but you have to start somewhere!
- Do the job before you get the job: At the end of the day, venture comes down to two things: finding great founders and supporting them on their journey. You don’t need to have the title of “VC” to start doing the job. Build an opinion or thesis on a certain topic/vertical that you’d want to invest in. Go meet founders who are building in that space and find ways to support them. Reach out to investors that backed the company you work at and build a relationship with them. Ask funds if they have scout opportunities, and even if they don’t, still offer to send their team deal flow that fits their portfolio of investments. Don’t expect a VC role to come to you; just go do it.
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Thanks again to all the investors who took time out of their busy schedules to chat with us. If you’re looking for additional reading on this topic, Sherman Leung’s Product to Venture and Matt Lane’s Product Management Competency are great places to start. If you’re a PM considering business school, Diana Kimball Berlin wrote an amazing article on how business school influenced her career.
Thanks for reading. It’s not easy to make the shift from PM to VC, but we hope this article makes it more attainable. We’re always free to chat — please reach out if you have any questions!
About the Investors:
Partner @Homebrew
Hunter joined Google in 2003, managing product and sales efforts for Google’s AdSense. Additionally, he led consumer product management at YouTube, delivering billions of playbacks daily across computers, phones, tablets, and TVs. In 2013, he founded Homebrew and has since invested in the seed rounds of Plaid, Gusto, Chime, Cruise, and Bowery Farming.
Partner @ TenOneTen
Minnie was an early product manager at Google, co-founding the Access team, a cross-functional product, policy, and engineering team. After Google, Minnie co-founded Shift (Nasdaq: SFT), an online car marketplace. Minnie joined LA’s TenOneTen venture in 2019, which has invested in companies like Emotive, Wish, Flycoin, Procore, and Scopely.
Partner @ Upfront Ventures
After joining Crosslink Capital, leading seed investments into Chime, PowerToFly, and BetterUp, Aditi moved to Google as a product manager on the Next Billion Users. She focused on investments and products for companies in emerging markets. She then returned to VC in 2019 as a Partner at Upfront Ventures, where she focuses on fintech investments like Clair and Finary.
Partner @ Matrix
Diana began her product career at Microsoft as a PM on the PowerPoint team. She moved to SoundCloud in 2013, then joined Quip in 2016 as their second product hire. In her 5 years at Quip and Salesforce (which acquired Quip soon after she joined), she grew the product team and ultimately led a team of PMs and data scientists as VP Product. She joined Matrix as a Partner in 2021. Matrix’s portfolio includes Canva, GOAT, HubSpot, and Zendesk.
Founder & General Partner @ Twine Ventures
Leshika started her career as one of Google’s first product marketing hires. She was responsible for the company’s initial forays into image-based advertising and supported engineering strategy for Gmail, Blogger, and Picasa, as well as Google’s first mobile search product. In 2021, she launched Twine Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm investing in human health, climate, and financial empowerment. She has led investments in Apella Technology, Teiko.bio, and Rupa Health.
Founder and Managing Partner @ Tau Ventures
Amit joined Google in 2004 where he led product for Google Images and brought Picasa (Google Photos) to a global audience. He later joined Norwest Venture Partners as a senior associate before cofounding Health IQ (has raised $140M from CRV, First Round, Greylock, A16Z, Felicis, Foundation etc). He then moved to be a Principal at Samsung NEXT Ventures before cofounding Tau Ventures in 2019. Amit has led investments in Banjo Health, Elemental Machines, Iterative Scopes, Signos, and Renee among others.
Partner @ NEA
Vanessa began her product journey as a Senior Product Lead at Playdom (acquired by Disney). She then founded her own company, Funloop, and led product development for various educational games. She then joined Box as Director of Product Management, where she worked on building the next generation of productivity apps across web and mobile. Since 2016, Vanessa has been a partner at NEA, where she has invested in EvidentID, Mejuri, Cleo, and Robinhood.
Investor @ Alleycorp
Sherman was a Product Manager at PatientPing (now Bamboo Health), where he launched a national care coordination platform and was named to MedTech Boston’s 40 under 40 Healthcare Innovators. In addition to being a medical student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Sherman has been an investor at Alleycorp for 3 years, where he’s helped incubate and launch healthcare companies Reside Health, Capable Health, and Pearl Health.
Investor @ Foundry
Mandy spent 5 years in product and project management roles at Comprehend Systems, cloud applications, and consulting services focused on improving clinical trials. She then moved to Service Titan, spending 3 years on the product team, where she led the development of the company’s procure-to-pay product. She recently joined Foundry, whose notable investments include Seat Geek, Zynga, and Whoop.
About the Authors:
Brian Nguyen (brian@springbankcollective.com)
Investor @ Springbank Collective
Before joining Springbank, Brian was a Product Manager at Unite Us, a social care coordination platform, where he was responsible for the referral and case management platform that connected healthcare providers and care-based organizations. He worked closely with Kaiser Permanente and the State of North Carolina on several initiatives (ex. Sensitive Organizations). Brian also works closely with Social Innovation Ventures on research and consulting, and prior to Unite Us was at Helix.
Kesar Varma (kesar@upfront.com)
Investor @ Upfront Ventures
Prior to Upfront, Kesar was a Product and Engagement Lead at LA-based healthcare startup Akido Labs, where he was responsible for the development of Akido’s patient engagement and clinic management platform. He also led Akido’s efforts to support COVID-19 vaccine and testing distribution for underserved populations. Kesar previously served as a Venture Fellow at Virtue VC, and as a Venture Partner at Necessary Ventures and Mentors Fund.
