VC as a Student: Introversion
Introversion as a budding student VC.
Where it all began
I don’t remember when exactly I got involved in VC and tech, but to give a rough ballpark, 2022 marks my second year. Venture wasn’t even something I thought of being involved in. Though, to be fair, I had no idea what I wanted to do coming into college (and this was the case until halfway through my junior year).
I’m currently finishing up my senior year at USC, and boy has it been a journey. It all started when a friend and I (Hi, Calvin, if you’re reading this) were reflecting on what the heck we would be doing after we graduate. He’s always been well-versed in the realm of startups. It was riveting to see the dude speak about startups in a way that exuded a genuine desire to leave a dent in this world. But I wasn’t as well-versed. So, to help me understand, he suggested I look into Venture Capital.
Ever since that conversation, I’ve been fascinated by VC. Capital and tech? Empowering our world’s most ambitious founders and projects in the name of innovation? Sign. Me. Up. It’s been a wild ride, and I’ve met people who are, for the lack of a better word, CRACKED (all my friends at Crescent and intoVenture, I’m talking to you).
Venture and all my peers have really pushed me to be a well-rounded person, in a way that little Aung Si would’ve never dreamed of. So, in gratitude for my year in VC as a student, I present to you the first installment of my VC as a Student series. The idea is to talk about the hardest things I struggled with in my quest to get involved in VC. The hope is that, if you’re a student reading this, you walk away with some reassurance and confidence — that if a dummy like me can do it, you absolutely can, too. First up: introversion.
This week’s reflection: Introversion as a budding student VC
I’m one of the biggest introverts I know. I still struggle when I’m out with a big group of friends — I’d rather kick it at home and sip on a light beer. That’s why it came as a bit of a shock to me when I realized just how much networking I had to do to make it in Venture. I had to expand my circle of knowledge and meet new people in the field. It wasn’t easy. But it wasn’t impossible.
As I expanded my core knowledge of VC through literature and other forms of content, I felt more comfortable speaking with others who already knew a thing or two. I read Venture Deals and The Business of Venture Capital (plus a bunch of Paul Graham essays and Fred Wilson blogs). I devoured the How to Start a Startup series by Sam Altman. I was learning a ton.
Still, I struggled a lot to truly connect with the people I met (how do you make a networking call not feel transactional?! I plan to write about the matter sometime in the future, because it really is tough, and I still suck at it). Regardless, I powered through. I created and polished up my LinkedIn, and went guns blazing with sending cold messages to strangers. My target: any and all individuals involved, even remotely, in VC — fund managers, Principals, Associates, Analysts, founders, IB peeps….and the list goes on. At the start, it felt like screaming into the abyss. Few people replied. The conversations I did manage to get were bland and awkward. Many, many, meandering walls of silence and deferring to their charisma (they’re on LinkedIn, so they must be social butterflies!). Safe to say, I hated it.
However, there was a big silver lining. As cringeworthy as LinkedIn feeds can be, it wouldn’t be prudent to write it off as just another virtue signaling platform. LinkedIn will always have a place close to my heart. Why? Because using it was what changed my life. As I painstakingly explored the people involved in the VC scene, I met Keyan Kazemian, founding Partner of Crescent Fund, and reached out. The reason I did this was that I wanted to talk to a fellow student who was far ahead of me in the game. Student? Managing Partner? Insane. I was also feeling that USC didn’t have much infrastructure catered towards students who want to learn VC, so I was thinking of creating a school club to make that happen and wanted his thoughts. Luckily for me, he responded, and the shy introvert in me reveled at this knowledge. Keyan introduced me to James Kaplan, a Crescent USC Partner (now Managing Partner). From there, they agreed to partner with me in building my own organization, intoVenture.
This was a little over a year ago. Today, intoVenture is up and running, and I’ve become an official Partner at Crescent. This didn’t readily come to me, though. I knew from my learnings that VCs always had an air of skepticism about them, and these guys were dead serious, so I wanted to prove myself. It took hard work to show them that I practiced what I preached. As shy as I was, I shared deal opportunities with James and kept in touch with Keyan. I kept them updated on what was happening at intoVenture (i.e. the board members that joined me, the members we managed to recruit, etc.). I decided then to officially apply for Crescent, and showed them that I was in it for the long run. I had sleepless nights worrying about whether I had it in me to be a president of an organization, and whether I deserved to be a Partner at Crescent. My self-esteem in this new world I happened upon was essentially zilch. But somehow, my hard work eventually unraveled into something fruitful. I’ve now hit the stride as intoVenture’s president and got promoted to Head of Growth at Crescent. Aung Si two years ago would have scoffed in disbelief.
The lesson that I learned here was that anyone can do the same. If you’re a college student, you can get involved from virtually anywhere. Find some way to find people you think know their sh*t (LinkedIn, Twitter, meetups, all of the above), learn enough to be able to talk semi-intelligently about VC, make an effort to reach out to these people, go into conversations with an open mind, and you’ll be in a good spot. It’s really that simple, but, admittedly, not easy at all.
What I learned is that, if you’re set on VC and tech, you have to make a decision to move outward. Introvert or not, the warp-speed world of tech will not wait for you. There were days when I wanted to just curl up in a blanket and talk to no one. But VC is belligerently active — while everyone you know is calling everyone else and learning about what’s going on in the scene, you won’t be doing yourself a favor by shying away from the conversations. Had I decided to let the hermit inside get the best of me, I would not be here writing this article.
The point is to know that, if you’re someone fortunate enough to be pursuing higher education in the U.S. — immigrant or citizen — you can absolutely make your own luck. As an introvert, this meant reading a lot more, networking and socializing like I never had before, and working that much harder (and smarter). One thing I kept repeating throughout this article was that it wasn’t easy. Because it wasn’t. It isn’t. My social battery still runs out. It just runs out slower because of practice. You won’t come out of this an extrovert — but damn it if you don’t become better at extroverting. Once this happens, you’ll be shocked at how your luck plays out.
I know I was.
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That ends this week’s reflection. I hope that was encouraging — it definitely felt cathartic to put that on paper.
I’ll talk more about my journey in future installments (I’ll get into content consumption, learning terms and fund economics, talking to founders, and more).
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I’m Aung Si, a University Partner at Crescent Fund and founder of intoVenture, a venture education platform at USC. I’m passionate about product, education, startups, and private markets. Feel free to reach out to me at aungsi.as99@gmail.com!
Check out the stuff I’ve worked on:
