A lot of young people ask me if they should move to venture and my answer is typically no* for the following reason.. It’s hard to truly understand what “excellence” means unless you’re deeply embedded and working for founders who are truly excellent. Even if you are part of the cap table and the board and spending time with founders, you don’t get same learnings as working at a company day in and day out. I wouldn’t know anything about product excellence if it were not for @deepnishar @ericwu01 @acv and others. I wouldn’t know anything about design if it were not for @kurtvarner @MicahSivitz @xiakv and others. I wouldn’t know anything about operational excellence if it were not for @rabois @danubata and others. Only because of these experiences and reading deeply, I was able to create some heuristics of what great founders and companies look like. And I have to keep updating it as I meet more and more founders and technology shifts beneath us. Those experiences also helped me earn the right to win the right to be a part of founders cap table. The other main reason to not be a junior investor is for most firms you’re just sourcing founders that match the GPs taste vs. truly thinking from first principles on what makes great founders & companies. If you really want to invest in founders, work at a great company and start by being be an angel. It’s such a fun way to learn and be part of founders journey. * The one exception to this is you’re absolutely obsessed with the craft of investing and you really cannot fathom doing any other job. If that’s your true passion then you’ll figure out a way to be a great investor regardless of anything you have done in the past.
很多年轻人问我，他们是否应该转去做 venture（风险投资），而我的回答通常是否定的*，原因如下：除非你真正深度参与其中，并且为那些真正卓越的 founder（创始人）工作，否则你很难真正理解“卓越”意味着什么。即使你在 cap table（股权结构表）和 board（董事会）里，也花时间和 founder 打交道，你获得的学习也无法与在一家公司里日复一日工作相提并论。如果不是因为 @deepnishar、@ericwu01、@acv 等人，我不会懂得 product excellence（产品卓越）是什么；如果不是因为 @kurtvarner、@MicahSivitz、@xiakv 等人，我不会懂得 design（设计）是什么；如果不是因为 @rabois、@danubata 等人，我不会懂得 operational excellence（运营卓越）是什么。正是因为这些经历，再加上深入阅读，我才能总结出一些 heuristics（经验法则），去判断伟大的 founder 和公司是什么样子。而且随着我见到越来越多的 founder，以及技术在我们脚下不断变迁，我还必须持续更新这些判断。这些经历也帮助我赢得了资格，从而有机会进入 founder 的 cap table。另一个不该做 junior investor（初级投资人）的主要原因是，在大多数机构里，你其实只是在为符合 GP（普通合伙人）口味的 founder 做 sourcing（项目发掘），而不是真正从 first principles（第一性原理）出发，思考什么样的 founder 和公司才是伟大的。如果你真的想投资 founder，那就去一家伟大的公司工作，并从做 angel（天使投资人）开始。这会是一种非常有趣的学习方式，也能让你参与 founder 的创业旅程。* 唯一的例外是：你对 investing（投资）这门手艺有着近乎执念的热爱，而且你真的无法想象自己做任何其他工作。如果这真的是你的热情所在，那么无论你过去做过什么，你都会想办法成为一名出色的投资人。