3 Lessons from Chris Hill, Investor at Comcast Ventures

Chris Hill, an Investor at Comcast Ventures, joined Sean Goldfaden, CEO of CoEfficient Labs, on Demo Day Podcast recently. In the episode, Chris shared his insights on the importance of focus as an investor, making mistakes, clear communication, and much more.

Chris holds a diverse range of investment and consulting experience in areas including SaaS, consumer marketplace, entertainment, and real estate technologies. His limitless view of the connected world comes from curiosity and deep-rooted industry connections in the Los Angeles startup ecosystem.

Prior to joining Comcast Ventures, Chris served as Principal at Siemer & Associates where he focused on digital media and software startup transactions. He spent his early career as SVP at IMT Capital where he identified growth opportunities and implemented the M&A due diligence process for the firm. In 2013, he was appointed by California’s governor to join the State of California Workforce Investment Board. He received his B.A. in History from Yale.

Below I’ll share a few of my takeaways from our interview with Chris.

Developing Focus as an Investor

As Chris mentioned in our interview, one of the most important things for an investor is developing some area of focus or domain expertise so your peers and founders know that you understand a particular space and can recognize differences within it.

This domain expertise will help you see the potential for a breakout within a particular space and people will want to work with you specifically because you bring something to the table that they may not already possess.

Essentially, having domain expertise gives you an advantage over others. Without it, you’re a commodity, and, especially in an industry as competitive as venture capital, it’ll be difficult to stand out.

You’re Gonna Make Mistakes

As a founder, you’ll make many mistakes, whether that be in your first hire or your 20th hire, who you took money from, your go-to-market strategy, etc.

The important idea to understand is that making mistakes is alright, but you should learn from them the next time.

For example, Chris mentioned how difficult it is to figure out your go-to-market strategy, but the time it takes to go to market with your second product, should be faster than the time taken for your first one.

As you progress through your business, you’ll continually learn from your mistakes, move faster, and build upon previous lessons. That of course, is the hope, and investors are betting on you learning from your mistakes over time to build your business.

Communicate Clearly

As an investor, Chris wants to hear a clearly articulated vision of what the opportunity is, what the pain point is, as well as how you’re going to get to that opportunity.

For a founder, being able to articulate the problem you’re solving for and why you’re passionate about it is very important. Why? Because investors want to see that you’re really thinking through this process and have a plan of attack for it.

Want to Learn More?

You can watch Chris Hill’s full video interview on our Demo Day website, or listen to his full episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Tune in next week as I share more learnings from Demo Day. Sending love from the entire CoEfficient Labs Team!

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