Key Learnings after 6 Months on the Job as a VC Analyst
This past month, I attended my first Declare Summit in NYC and AllRaise VC Summit in Oakland where hundreds of women founders and funders from across the globe gathered to discuss the future of technology. I was heartened to see such a strong showing of women at different stages of their careers coming together and sharing their personal journeys as well as tactical tips in navigating the VC business. I previously wrote a post after joining Work-Bench and now after spending 6 months in the role as a VC Analyst, these are some of my biggest learnings on the job. I hope this serves as a helpful reference for others thinking about a career in VC.
Time management. Most junior VCs don’t have complete ownership over their work schedules and have to juggle a lot of tasks of varying priorities simultaneously. Working with everyone on the investment team, from associates to principals and general partners means that you have to optimize your time management skills. It’s important to remember that no task is too small: for many funds the investment process is a team sport and in my 6 months of working at Work-Bench, no two days have ever been the same. I quickly learned how important it is to keep my days flexible because any time can be crunch time. Many junior investors fall into the trap of prioritizing quantity over quality. It’s important to be thoughtful in building repeatable workflows that enable you to work smarter, not just faster. On the bright side, the more time you spend working on something, the more comfortable you get at completing the task. For instance, your first memo might take you longer to write, but you should use it as a learning opportunity for subsequent ones. Rest assured, with practice you will become more efficient and learn how to manage and prioritize your tasks.
Pick a Major and a Minor. When I first joined Work-Bench, I was amazed at how deeply technical the team is, largely due to our thematic coverage and customer empathy when it comes to enterprise technology markets like data and analytics, infrastructure, cybersecurity, and the future of work.
Whether you’re an early stage or late stage investor, developing a good understanding of the market you are investing in is just as important as developing a technical expertise in the industry. This is especially true if you’re an enterprise tech investor.
As an investor, you can train yourself by choosing a ‘major’ and ‘minor’ in the field(s) that you would ideally want to invest in. Think of the ‘major’ as being the broader category that you want to focus your research on. The ‘minor’ is the secondary concentration that either complements your ‘major’ or allows you to explore an adjacent field altogether. Together, your ‘major’ and ‘minor’ will help you build a solid foundation for self-learning and push you to grow as a technical investor. Given the volatility of the tech industry, you will find that specializing in a ‘minor’ field will also come in handy, especially if your niche area of focus becomes obsolete. Keeping an open mind will allow you to understand when the market is starting to stagger or feel crowded, and allow you to switch your focus to a different area if necessary.
There are many advantages to becoming a subject matter expert. Not only are you better positioned to assess a particular market and predict emerging trends, but you’re also able to make earlier bets on quality companies because you can tap right into the knowledge arsenal and relationships you’ve built over the years. By specializing, you can build a track record and reputation for yourself, attract peer investors and industry experts to build a strong network of people who you can rely on to validate an idea during due diligence.
Founders also appreciate when an investor can reason from first principles and grasp the core value of their product. Maybe you’re not as deeply technical as the founder, but you should at least be able to break down the complicated problem they are solving, ask thoughtful questions and speak intelligently about the broader space. Investors can add guidance here because they can leverage years of experience in investing in a particular space and help founders keep an eye on the bigger picture while they are fighting in the trenches.
Both AllRaise and Declare connected me to a broader community of women investors who channel their expertise to help build and fund the next generation of technology companies.
In my role as a VC analyst at Work-Bench, I function more as generalist, supporting the investment team in sourcing, doing research and due diligence and everything in between. I find that being a generalist this early in my career is a great way for me to experiment with different fields and have a taste of everything before I finally commit to a field of specialization. For now, I’m particularly interested in cloud native technologies and enterprise SaaS tools and if you’re in the same boat of identifying your focus areas, I would love to hear from you — shoot me an email or tweet at me!
