Season 2: 10/10 VC Series — Best Career Advice💡
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Overview: 10 Questions to 10 Early Stage Venture Capitalists
This topic series brings together perspectives across a variety of early-stage VC funds to help readers gain insight into what investors believe to be key to their growth and success. In our belief that perspectives should be well-rounded and not monopolistic, we chose to feature 10 different investors rather than to dive deep with just 1 or 2 individuals. We have a lot to learn from each other and hope that by sharing 10 unique viewpoints, we may all come to our own insights faster. Our posts will be organized by question and cover topics including investment criteria, portfolio support, industry trends, and general advice.
We are honored to feature investors at:
Boehringer Ingelheim, Breakout Ventures, Arkitekt Ventures, Time BioVentures, B Capital Group, NEA, Bessemer Venture Partners, NFX, Not Boring, Mayfield Fund, & Alix Ventures
We asked our guests:
“What has been the most helpful piece of advice you received throughout your career as a venture capitalist?”
“Don’t be afraid to make a tough call. If you dispassionately approach a fork in the road and believe there is sufficient data to move forward/make a change in strategy or personnel, the do it. The answer will be the same later on. Make a decision and move forward.”
Kanad Das — Investment Director @ Boehringer Ingelheim
“I remember after I closed my first deal, my boss said something along the lines of “Congrats, you may not know if you’re any good at this for ten years.” The duration of our asset class can be really humbling and this mindset helps me focus on creating longer term value.”
Julia Moore — Co-Founder & Managing Partner @ Breakout Ventures
“‘Don’t lose sight of the forest for a leaf’ — when assessing an opportunity there is always another question you’ll want to ask but always focusing on the bigger picture has made me a better investor and partner to founders.”
Pavan Choksi — Partner @ Arkitekt Ventures
“Invest in companies you would go work at yourself.”
D.A. Wallach — Co-Founder & General Partner @ Time BioVentures
“VCs are only as good as the entrepreneur in whom they have the privilege to invest.”
Widya Mulyasasmita — Sr. Principal @ B Capital Group
“If something doesn’t add up, it’s probably for a reason. If you’ve done the diligence — trust your work, and your gut!”
J.C. Lopez — Principal @ NEA
“Do the work (calls, analysis, review docs) and trust your intuition. You’ve done the work to build conviction.
There are multiple investing styles, try to find what is true to you vs trying to become someone else.”
Sofia Guerra — Investor @ Bessemer Venture Partners
“Don’t invest for the first 9 months as a VC. It takes time to recognize what makes a successful company. You need that time to really see a lot of companies, to see what the best companies have in common and once you’ve started to build that pattern recognition you can start investing.”
Omri Amirav-Drory — General Partner @ NFX
“Take risk, take ownership, and take responsibility for your investment.”
Arvind Gupta — Partner @ Mayfield Fund
“One of the lessons that was consistently reinforced in my time at 8VC was to understand the fundamentals of venture math and power law distributed returns. Our vocation is to go out and find the most exceptional scientific entrepreneurs that have the potential to build generational companies. Safe but small bets aren’t the goal. The Power Law by Sebastian Mallaby does a great job of illustrating this as well.”
Elliot Hershberg — Partner @ Not Boring
“At the end of the day, people run companies and relationships matter. The journey is usually never as hard or as easy as one might think, but it generally tends to be longer than expected. When choosing relationships, optimize for good people, as company prospects may come and go. It’s those who lead the organization that you’ll have to interact with despite the conditions.”
Chas Pulido — General Partner @ Alix Ventures
To read more insights from our guest contributors, click here to continue on to part 7…
📣 If you enjoyed this post please clap 👏 & comment 💬 to let us know
Alix Ventures, by way of BIOS Community, is providing this content for general information purposes only. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by Alix Ventures, BIOS Community, or its affiliates. The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Views and opinions expressed by Alix Ventures employees are those of the employees and do not necessarily reflect the view of Alix Ventures, BIOS Community, affiliates, and content sponsors.
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