Road2VC — Broadening my Horizons
Good Morning VCs and aspiring VCs. Hope you have had a great few weeks and are crushing your New year’s resolutions. It’s been a couple weeks since my last post which gave me some time to make a few changes in my approach which I’m hoping will help me accomplish my overall goal. I won’t know until I try, right? And hey, this is meant to be a blog where we are constantly learning and documenting the journey along the way.
During this post, I’ll explain how I accomplished my goals from last post and what I’ve learned from accomplishing them. I’ll also go into some detail around things that I’m doing which I may have not necessarily set a specific goal for myself around. It’ll be a good read, so make sure you follow along.
But before we get into the goals, I’ve made a chance in the way that I’m publicizing this blog. I’ve decided to actively share my Medium posts on LinkedIn to engage with my network. I find it way easier that maintaining a mailing list. Plus even folks outside of your network can see, so unlimited potential outreach. So going forward, I’ll be sharing new posts on LinkedIn so my network can stay up to date as we head down the Road2VC.
Last post, I set the goal for myself to diversify my outreach and to go back to cold emails to build upon my current network. I also set a second goal for myself within the same post to reach out to recruiting firms that specifically work with Venture Capital firms to see if they were aware of any opportunities that may be available.
For those who have been following along, you may know that I’ve been reaching out to VC partners in my network to see if I could have an informal, informational conversation too see how I could add value or benefit the firm in anyway.
Quick status update on that, I still haven’t been able to get this Partner to respond. I’ve sent around 20 follow-up emails at this point and still no reaction. Doesn’t mean that I’m going to stop. I will keep following up in hopes that one day, I can pay it forward to someone else that is in the same position that I am today.
Now, I know that I’m not the only person in the world that is going through this. Hell, there’s even classes and cohort programs where you pay anywhere from $5,000 — $80,000 that teach you how to be a VC and help you “land a position” at a firm. At the end of the day, I’m someone would much rather do it on their own. That’s where I took it back to LinkedIn. Last post, the first goal I set for myself was to start sending out cold emails again. I started digging around on LinkedIn, typing things like Venture Capital, Growth Equity, venture capital volunteer, chief of staff, etc.
These keywords came up with some promising results which helped me zero in on who I wanted to reach out to. One of them specifically was a partner from a Chicago-based firm, who invests in Cybersecurity startups. I follow this individual on LinkedIn and their activities usually pop up on my news feed. They were meeting with an a particular public service individual whom I did some research on and saw that we had very similar background and upbringings. So I decided to reach out to introduce myself virtually. Luckily, one thing that I noticed was that people want to be found so they usually share their email whether it be on LinkedIn or on their firm’s website. So I sent off an email to their business email explaining that I did some research on them and that their background really resonated with me. I’ll be honest, might not be the most effective but let’s see what happens.
I sent off a second email to someone that I discovered during my LinkedIn creeping using the keywords that I listed above and came across someone who volunteered for a couple years at a firm out west so posted about their experience. So I decided to reach out to see how they went about finding such a role and if they would be open to brainstorming potential ways that I could find such a role. Still waiting to hear back from him so will keep this up to date.
The last goal that I had set for myself was to find a recruiting agency that works with VC firms and see if there were any potential opportunities that may align with my background and motivations. After some googling and LinkedIn searching, I came across a firm that was located in Texas. I found their email address for which candidates can reach out to them to drop their resume into their system. I also sent an email out to one of their recruiters that I was able to find on LinkedIn and sent them an email explaining what I was looking for. Luckily I was able to get a good response and sent over my resume.
Overall, I did accomplish the goals the I set for myself from last post. However, there’s always more that you can do to reach your goals. Really do whatever you feel is right. For example, after sharing my posts on LinkedIn, I quickly gained some engagement from folks that have been involved in the industry for quite some time, whom I may not have spoken to in years offering their advice and how to help. From this network engagement, I also learned about and attended a few events and meetups going on in the area which could only increase my chances of establishing myself within the industry and building a rapport with VCs.
This has been one of my longer posts since there has been quite a bit of activity on my side within the last month. So appreciate all of those that have hung around and kept reading and hope that you all join me next time as we continue down then Road2VC.
