Kauffman Fellows Module 2 Reflection: “Seeing, Picking & Winning the Deal”
First and foremost, this is long overdue. My second module with Class 27 Kauffman Fellows took place in September in New York City, and since blogging doesn’t come naturally to me, I’ve been putting this aside for a while. But, I like to push myself to uncomfortable places, and I got a surprising number of people asking me when I would write about the experience again. So here we go…
As expected our most recent module on Seeing, Picking & Winning the Deal was another jam-packed week of learning. I could go on in detail about the incredible speakers we heard from, such as Rebecca Kaden, from Union Square Ventures, Chris Fralic, from First Round Capital, Josh Wolfe, from Lux Capital, and many others. However, instead of going over everything we discussed, I will focus on the three items that made the most impact on me.
I want to pause and highlight that again: these takeaways are what made an impact on ME, at THIS moment in time… what is relevant to our firm right now, what fits my style as a General Partner, what I’m ready for according to my personal journey. Other classmates, who listened to the exact same things I did, could have very different takeaways. That’s the great thing about the Kauffman Fellows experience. There is always a variety of speakers and so many lessons to take in that can add value to people in many stages of growth. Instead of getting overwhelmed by it all, though, I’m focusing on developing these three ideas.
The power of half-baked ideas
Many people, including myself, get stuck on the idea that we need to be experts on something before putting ourselves out there and sharing our thoughts. One of the speakers talked about how instead we can position ourselves as learners. We can learn about anything and one of the best ways to do so is to have the courage to share our “half-baked ideas” with the world and see what we get back.
Of course, this is much easier to say when you have an established firm that has raised many successful funds. But the idea of the “minimal viable product” should apply to all of us. For us at Grand Ventures, it was bold to start to communicate our four target sectors. While others may consider us new to some of these spaces, we have strategically picked growing sectors where we either have experience, sound advisors, or both. And the momentum we’ve gained by doing so is what accelerated our growing expertise in these sectors.
There is no single formula for success in VC.
Between speakers, there was a general agreement that outlier investments are what matters in venture capital, but there was definitely not a framework on how to find them. There isn’t a single formula for a fund’s success. Some funds are very successful finding the outliers by building sector or category expertise, others defend the power law strategy of investing. Some funds are successful by providing hands-on support to portfolio companies and providing follow-on investments, like Grand Ventures does. But we saw that many funds can also be successful by using new money to invest in fresh companies versus in existing portfolio companies. There are successes and failures in all models, which leads me to the third, and perhaps most important, takeaway.
Build a fund and structure that works for the people deploying it.
As we continue to grow and evolve at Grand Ventures, this is a very relevant topic for us. We know there are many successful models in venture capital; but ultimately, we should choose what works for me and my partners and what feels natural and authentic to us. And that’s how we find ourselves continually returning to the introspective work that is so encouraged by the Kauffman Fellows Program. Figuring out what our zone of genius is, and operating in it, brings the best support to our portfolio companies and results to our limited partners.
Once again, I left NYC with a cup full and a mixed feeling of exhaustion and excitement. There are many ways to see, pick and win the best deals, and Grand Ventures will continue to double down on the strategies that have worked for us. What I know for sure is that we leave our modules with a reminder that we are paid to do this job and that’s a pretty awesome privilege. Entrepreneurs change this world and working close to them is an honor.
