🧵 1/ I regularly hear founders, especially underrepresented founders, getting upset that they have to show traction and work so hard to raise. Compared to a White guy from Stanford who's done far less than them but can raise money with just a deck. well here's the secret
2/before I get to the secret on this point of why this happens, let me share 3 truths first. Truth #1 raising capital pre-product or pre-revenue is actually really rare and doesn't happen nearly as much as it may seem or how people talk about it.
Jun 24, 2022 • 17 tweets • 3 min read
🧵1/ Calling all founders and early-stage fund managers. Funding is changing and one thing I'm starting to see more and more are harsher terms in early-stage term sheets that weren't used as often in previous years but I think you might want to be aware of and understand
2/ Thanks to Ycombinator and others, over the last decade-plus a lot of early-stage (pre-seed, seed, and Series A) deal structures and term sheets have been standardized to make things easier, cheaper, and more transparent.
Jun 22, 2022 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
🧵1/I met a young VC recently who told me that he was thinking of raising a fund. He said had gotten feedback from some potential LPs that it would be hard to raise as a generalist and that he should pick a vertical or few to specialize in. I told him that was BS! Now let's fight
2/ Ok now let's add some perspective and nuance to this conversation. I'm going to share some personal thoughts on this idea of Generalist VS Specialist VC but checkout some amazing points from a medium article from @michaeltefula
1/ 🧵Ok VC Twitter, I'd like to start a discussion that might get a lil heated but open discourse is what we are here for. I hate deal attribution and think is causes misalignment within a team structure. Now I'll explain a bit about what it is and why I'm not a fan
2/ Deal attribution is basically who in a Venture fund gets "credit" for an investment. In many cases the person credited with an investment also gets a bonus or some of the returns from that company if it does well in the future.
Apr 25, 2022 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
1/ 🧵 one of my top ten secrets for managing a large portfolio of companies. Aspiring VCs, new VCs, Emerging managers, and even Established managers I hope this can be helpful to you.
One of my secrets to managing a large portfolio is Random Text messages (RTM) - read more below
2/ Managing a portfolio of a lot of companies (more than 20+) alone can be tough. It's not easy to stay on top of every founder and company beyond the quarterly updates that aren't always sent regularly.
Dec 6, 2021 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
🧵1/ This past week I got the privilege to moderate a panel at @500GlobalVC's #PreMoney2021 conference in Miami discussing the "New Faces of VC". I ended the panel encouraging the audience that "you are good enough"
This thread is a reflection on my own growth in venture
2/ In 2016 after quitting a regular job at a marketing firm I got hired at @MDTEDCO, the largest funder of early-stage companies in the State of Maryland. I had no investing experience or even a college degree and so I always had the complex of "am I good enough" "can I do this"
Nov 1, 2021 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
1/ this thread is a PSA and potential lesson to founders and other fund managers/VCs. When you build in public you have to share the good with the bad. Last week we had our first @RareBreedVC company fail and go to zero but that is only the beginning of this story
2/ Last week while I was taking part in our most recent @KauffmanFellows module, one of my founders reached out to me to chat and then offered to meet in person (I was 2 hours away from them). This was unusual for the founder so I can admit I was a little worried.
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