Ask HN: Do you aspire to be a venture capitalist? - hoodoof
======
saosebastiao
I used to, and then I worked for one. Granted, it wasn't a top tier firm, but
I hobnobbed with plenty of partners from actual top tier firms and came to
realize they are all pretty much the same. They are all cowboys that try to
act like visionaries and sages, and either peter out or get lucky with a big
exit, because a single big exit from your first fund is enough to guarantee
the rest of your career.

If I got an offer with AH though, I would take it. Hell, as an entrepreneur,
I'd probably be skeptical of taking any money that wasn't from AH. They're the
only ones that seem to do anything prescient.

~~~
bsbechtel
What makes a16z so great? I know they have a great reputation, and do a good
job marketing themselves, but what are the specifics that really help
entrepreneurs?

~~~
saosebastiao
I started to notice a trend amongst VC partners. They talk a big talk, but
most of them are pretty risk averse and will only invest if someone else jumps
the gun first. A lot of times, there will be multiple VCs interested in a
company but they will bullshit the founders about wanting to invest, and just
sit around waiting for someone else to invest so they can jump on the
bandwagon.

What I find different about AH is that they invest when they want to invest,
and don't care if other VCs are interested. Social proof isn't that important
to them. And it's pretty crazy...they'll invest in a company that nobody else
has been talking about and then out of nowhere the entire VC industry is
throwing money at them.

------
vcarl
My pipe dream is to be a non-shitty version of Erlich from Silicon Valley. I'd
love to run an "accelerator" program out of a space that I owned where you
take a bunch of smart people and set them loose, it seems like a perfect cross
between fierce capitalism and communal living.

~~~
toomuchtodo
I want to do this in the Tampa area. Come hack in my huge house/workshop for
free, keep your equity. I just want to see you build something cool.

~~~
bengali3
reminds me of this, not sure about equity but "come build cool" is more
important than "get next round"

[http://www.raizlabs.com/services/startup-
incubator/](http://www.raizlabs.com/services/startup-incubator/)

~~~
toomuchtodo
I care less about a sustainable business and more about social change. Watsi >
Uber. That sort of thing. _shrug_

------
m52go
I'd rather be an adventure capitalist: contribute excellent products and
services to the market, while living an adventurous life with the proceeds.

What's the fun in sitting on your ass rating/gambling on others' fortunes?
Make your own!

BTW Aswath Damodaran once made a very astute point regarding VCs: they're
traders, not investors, looking to enter low and exit high. Period. Anyone
under the delusion that these people invest for the greater good is (largely)
mistaken.

That's not necessarily a bad thing, but just not how I'd personally like to
see my occupation defined.

~~~
ycosynot
Well, you're not helping by reinforcing the idea. People in general don't like
people who get rich randomly (or as good as), because it's unfair (so it
triggers the anti-cheat response), and yet, it's needed. So we should be
careful of the bias, and I think it'd be all the better if the occupation was
taken by people who care about the definition of their occupation. The hate on
traders is a feedback loop leading nowhere.

~~~
adventured
I agree with your premise, but not the notion that getting rich randomly is
unfair. It is often irrationally regarded as unfair however.

For it to actually be unfair, there has to be a legitimately injured party. As
an example, Flappy Bird's creator didn't injure anybody, and did not take
anything from anyone else (I'm not sure if you can get more random, for this
discussion, than that product's brief but sensational rise).

There's no possibility of objectively defining the random aspect - what
qualifies as random and what doesn't (varying from lottery winners to someone
claiming Paul Allen fits the category). That logic hint makes it clear that
the idea that getting rich randomly is unfair, is an invalid notion to begin
with. It falls into the same camp as thinking that all wealth in general is
unfair - a strictly subjective feeling, typically derived from a person's
philosophy on life.

------
SeoxyS
Yup, eventually. For me, it's one of the huge benefits of working at
AngelList. VCs, Angels, and LPs walk in and out of the office every day, and I
live and breath VC every day, while still working at a startup. I've learnt
more about VC in 8 months at AngelList than most founders will in all their
funding rounds combined.

I used to think of myself as starting a successful company or two, and
retiring to VC or as an Angel… I've come to realize that that scenario is
entirely unrealistic. Few founders have the experience needed to do this right
off the bat. It'd probably be hugely beneficial to anyone to work in the
industry for a bit before jumping in. Work for a VC, or work for a VC-related
company (e.g. AngelList, FundersClub, Equidate, eShares…)

If this sounds interesting, we're hiring -
[https://angel.co/angellist/jobs](https://angel.co/angellist/jobs).

------
rdl
I've thought about it. I'd like to get involved in more due diligence for
investors (I've done this on an ad hoc basis a several times), and probably be
an EIR for 3-6 months whenever it is convenient. I would only consider the ~5
universal top tier plus the ~5 top tier in my area of interest
(security/infrastructure).

The full-time role I'd love would be opening up a new geography for a fund;
say, a Berlin office for a top tier fund, focused on privacy/infosec/liberty
investments in Europe.

AngelList kind of kills all but the top tier. If I had more money, I'd be
investing or syndicating on AngelList.

I'd still rather do a startup again in a couple years, but EIR might be a nice
transition, and seeing the other side would be interesting.

~~~
andyidsinga
maybe you would actually be able to do this if you picked a non top tier firm,
maybe a newer firm with lots of energy and people you find you like?

your skills might make a bigger impact there

~~~
rdl
Several of the industry specific firms are pretty new, actually.

The main challenge is time, not opportunity. I'm at a top tier "unicorn"
startup right now, and my next best alternative is founding another startup. I
probably would walk for a partnership track position in a top firm, but that's
it. (Or "fix all of apple's online services", build apple's enterprise
business, "make android or chromeos secure and secure against third party
doctrine", secure the usg, or spacex, but nothing else.)

There are some great niches in tech investing outside of early stage startups
(a PE focused on turnarounds of ducked companies like yahoo or twitter?), but
in early stage, if you aren't getting the top deals (by being known as top
tier generally or in your market), why bother?

~~~
andyidsinga
certainly landing those positions and then following up with measurabe
positive impact would be noteworthy.

------
jonathancordeau
The ability to provide capital, access to a network, personal and professional
support, real world experience (in that order) to founders in pursuit of
helping them "change the world" is an awesome opportunity. Most VC's I've
interacted with truly seem to feel this way. So in that sense, yes, it would
be great to be a venture capitalist. Unfortunately, as argued in "The E-Myth",
there are probably better avenues, at least for the later 3, to help founders,
without the 800lb gorilla of submitting to the "VC system".

~~~
ClassyHacker
The first one is probably the main reason behind answer to OP's question. "Do
you aspire to be a venture capitalist?" "Do I have the ability to provide
capital?"

------
danharaj
I don't aspire to be any sort of capitalist.

~~~
eli_gottlieb
Indeed! I don't understand what the point is in living one's life neither in
leisure nor in actual work, but instead in acting as a chief of the capital
casino.

I'd rather be doing something than allocating somethings.

------
mattzito
I think it would be a very interesting business to be in - I think Id' be more
interested in being a VC advisor, which I've done sporadically in the past.
Get to be involved in interesting deals and get paid for it, without having
the grind of keeping LPs happy.

~~~
MathsOX
Would be interested in hearing how you got involved in this and get more color
on your role, if you wanted to share.

~~~
mattzito
Sure - there's not much to tell. I was one of the founders of a venture-backed
startup that raised a couple of rounds of funding from a set of VCs. I
had/have pretty good relationships with a few of those, plus some other
connections that I'd made through that process. Every once in a while I get a
call or an email from one of them asking my opinion about an industry, a
technology, or a specific company. From there it could be anything from a
quick phone call, to a chat with the startup in question, to a full due
diligence of their business and technology. Usually I'm involved either at the
very early stages, "We're interested in maybe making an investment or three in
this category", or very late, "We want to invest in this company, can you take
a look at their technology and tell us what you think?"

------
theshadowmonkey
I aspire to be a venture capitalist at some point in my life. For me, being a
venture capitalist is more about spotting the right people and the right
vision more than the money. Companies succeed and fail. VCs lose on a lot and
gain on a few.

------
sharkweek
More interested in getting rich and then becoming an angel investor locally. I
find the concept of really early stage ideas far more appealing than
institutional investing.

Now I just need to get wealthy myself...

------
GFK_of_xmaspast
Absolutely not, I'm already too close to the head of the 'against the wall
when the revolution comes' line for my moral comfort.

------
god_bless_texas
I would love to be entrepreneur in residence at a VC firm because that would
simply imply that I'd been successful as an entrepreneur.

------
hluska
Yes, I do.

 _Edit - I bet this would be a great poll._

------
wittedhaddock
Absolutely not

------
sarciszewski
Not I.

------
thethinker1032
Perhaps later in life.

------
kra34
I think they prefer to be called robber barons these days

------
nitam
yes

