How to Develop A VC’s Skill Set Part 1
As an aspiring VC, I spend a lot of my time learning about skills I need and how I can go about either attaining or fine tuning them. Here is a list below. This is part of a two-part series. Today I will cover the first 4 skills listed.
1. Empathy
2. Sourcing/ Reading Compression/ Quick Analysis
3. Writing
4. Presentation
5. Story Telling/ Sales
6. General Knowledge Building
7. Collaboration/ Communication
Empathy
This is a constant theme I’ve come across, as VC’s we must have empathy, this extends to founders, colleagues, and the investors we work with. Understand that in the end we are playing a small role in helping everyone to achieve their desired goal. VC’s are mere conduits in this process. We must try to see where all parties are coming from. I think it’s also important to help others. Don’t dismiss a founder’s deck because it’s not aesthetically pleasing or their website is underdeveloped, look at the merit of their ideas and work from there. Give them feedback and link them to resources that will help them improve. As humans we are fundamentally biased but let’s have some self-awareness of that fact. It’s better to empower than to put down others. Understand investors preferences and what they are most likely to invest in. Help your colleagues out, if they’re overwhelmed offer a helping hand, if they kill a presentation or find a great lead, let them know! These small things go a far way in team building.
In a world of increasing social awareness empathy is also key. As a liberal arts major, I was taught to analyze everything beyond its face value. I like to apply a racial lens, a gendered lens a socioeconomic and an environmental lens, ect. I was recently reading a deck from a Rwandan startup and I went through my normal process of looking at the team’s LinkedIn profiles and their company website. Both were not as developed as many of the U.S. and European startups I often source. I had to take a step back, remove my arbitrary bias and think about underlying reasons for why that might be. I attribute importance to these nuances.
Sourcing/ Quick Analysis
As a result of my fellowship I get access to a lot of pitch decks. I try to go through as many pitch decks as possible, it’s a great learning experience! I’ll often go through ones that my other colleagues are working on, just to build up my skills. I read through them quickly and analyze (Product, Market, Team, Fit, Domain Experience, Timing, and a few other factors). Reading through a lot of decks also helps in understanding the sectors and markets that are trending, you’ll notice themes or areas of potential market saturation. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve been introduced to problems, industries, and markets I had not previously known about.
Writing
A lot of people argue that liberal arts majors are useless. As someone who participates in a lot of business-related activities my liberal arts background is often seen as a sign of potential weakness. How can I compete with the finance and econ majors? My fellowship has taught me that this is utter malarky! The core of a liberal arts education centers around critical thinking, reading comprehension, analysis, thesis building, writing, and supporting arguments. These are all valuable VC skills, as you’ll have to read a lot, research a lot, and reach evidence supported concussions.
Presentation
I have a BA/MA in Political Science/International Relations. In both undergrad and graduate school presentations were a core component of our curriculum. In all my classes you generally had to give 1 solo or group presentation a semester. Boy am I thankful for this now! Presentation and storytelling are crucial. At this stage of my fellowship our meetings largely consist of one colleague presenting a slide show or running the team through a memo they prepared on a company that they would like to invest in. If you’re a poor public speaker, work on it, sign up for class, practice and develop the skill.
