Will is the only person I've ever hired who did all the work BEFORE starting the job. To everyone who is looking for a job in venture, this is how he landed this
Him: Are you hiring for summer internships?
Me: No. no budget. no role. esp not MBAs who are looking for high salaries and don't know anything (as someone who has one)
Him: ok, will you let me just shadow and jump in here and there?
Me: ok
Him: [goes and does all this stuff] I've set up your entire deal flow triaging system w/ auto emails. All you need to do is put in your credit card.
Me: Oh! Thank you! (what we use today) We have a bit of $$ in SG w/ if you want in the summer. But not MBA lev.Might cover housing
Him: Ok cool. [goes and sets up our whole system there]
Me: Oh amazing - thank you!
Him: I'll go back to tweaking a bunch of stuff on the deal flow triaging.
Me: Ok cool - do whatever.
Him: Hey I did all this research on the PPP loans - do you think this would be useful to your port cos?
Me: Oh awesome - yes for sure!
Him: [does the presentation and so many of our pre-seed cos got loans]
Him: Hey I'd like to stay in VC post-graduation ideally in NYC.
Me: Great! Let me intro you to some of my VC friends in NYC.
Unfort, we have no budget. And, we want ppl to have run a biz to understand the entrep exp. 1 of our port cos is going through a tough pivot right now.
Him: I'm happy to jump in and help them out. [Helps them w/ their pivot over the next several months]
Me/Eric/Shiyan: Will is really awesome! We don't know if we'll get more budget from a new fund. But I'd be down to cut my salary to bring him on if needed. Me too. Me too.
And that's how it's done.
We had no budget. We had no investment role. We had no time to create structure / mentorship / a job.
But we wanted to bring @will_bricker onboard because he hopped into any scenario unexpectedly did whatever it took to get stuff done.
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Random musing this AM: structured data on startup investors.
Something that has plagued startup ecosystems for so long is entrepreneurs simply don't trust investors. (I know - I was/is one of those entrepreneurs)
There have been many attempts at this solution - a thread >>
1) There have been attempts to create a Yelp of Investors. Starting with The Funded, through RateMyInvestor through @VCGuideHQ etc..
And this is fine - it certainly illuminates experiences that entrepreneurs have (good or bad) and that's valuable.
2) But like Yelp, you have the issue that most ppl want to consumer content and not participate.
So you capture snapshots -- again great to have some data, but not it's not complete per se.
You also get the outliers -- both the good and bad.
Entrepreneurship is a mind game. Can you push to get that next customer by next wk? Can you stretch your dollar to get something done?
But there are plenty of HARD mental activities.
What makes it hard are the relationships involved >>
1) Yrs ago, I started a co w/ a friend. I didn't realize then that his wife was not excited about his working on a startup. She wanted him to get a stable job.
Ever since then, I spend a LOT of time getting to know SOs & spouses. They are just as impt as your co-founders.
2) Morale is so so impt. Not just your morale but everyone on your team. And all the impt ppl in their life.
Often it's hard to know what the true morale is, because you're the boss, and no one tells the boss what they really think. It's your job to find out.
Some Sat thoughts on growing pains. One of the earliest hurdles in building a company is in how to structure work w your first hires.
@HustleFundVC we now have 14 ppl & have rejiggered how we work recently.
More here >>
1) When we started 3 yrs ago, it was just @ericbahn and me. We decided we would build an in-person team in the SF Bay Area & it would be small. And that would be fun.
3) But both of those things went out the window quickly.
@shiyankoh came along and told us she was going to start a vc firm in SEA. We couldn’t pass up working w her. But in-person wasn’t going to work because she would be in Singapore.
1) VCs are looking for startups that can get to $100m / yr in rev by yr 7-10.
VCs need this kind of return in order to produce great funds.
2) And so many companies won't get to this level - and that's not a bad thing - but then it means you should be thinking about trying to get going w company revenue since you can't count on VC backing.
I have been a tech entrepreneur since I was in HS (20+ years). Some learnings:
1) There is a LOT of luck.
Definitely lots of hard work and skill required - no doubt. But, let's not downplay luck. Luck in everything. In privilege. In opportunity. In finding PM fit. In health.
2) A friend who has been a successful founder echoed this. His first company was highly successful.
He has been trying all kinds of startup ideas since then and nothing has really clicked.
He's smart. Hardworking. Has money. Great network. But you can force PM fit.
3) It shows up in the numbers as well.
Depending on the study you read, successful serial entrepreneurs have a slight edge over first time founders. But not by much.