On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured:
- David Cohen of Techstars
- Jacob Effron of Redpoint
- Arianna Simpson of Andreessen Horowitz
We asked guests for the most important piece of advice that they’d share with folks early in their venture career.
The host of The Full Ratchet is Nick Moran of New Stack Ventures, a venture capital firm committed to investing in founders outside of the Bay Area.
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Transcribed with AI:
0:19
Welcome back to TFR on today’s special segment, we ask guests for the most important piece of advice that they’d share with folks early in their venture career. Here’s the segment called key advice.
0:36
On today’s special segment, we have David Cohen of Tech Stars, if you could share one piece of advice with a young, new investor. What would you tell them?
0:44
For investors, it’s the advice I got from Bradfield, you know, probably 20 years ago. Pick a strategy and stick to it. You know, it’s a get really good at what you do. And my observation as an LP, is that a lot of investors, really, that I meet really don’t have a strategy. They have, you know, a network, and that’s their strategy, right? You know what? What is really going to be unique about what you do or what you bring to the table that’s going to set you apart? And how do you build that over a long period of time? So thinking hard about what that strategy is, what that focus is, sticking to. It is how you get really great at it, right, versus sort of moving around all the time. And so, yeah, that’s I would just repeat that advice I got a long time ago from a friend, perfect. You.
1:44
On today’s special segment, we have Jacob Efron of red point. If you could share one piece of advice with a young, new investor, what would you tell them?
1:52
You know, what I love about venture is there’s no one way to do it. There’s so many people that are so successful at this job and do it in completely different ways. And so I think the advice I’d give is you’ve got to find what gives you energy in this job, and you know, the Venn diagram of that and what you’re good at, and follow that. It’s so easy to get caught up in playing someone else’s game and feeling, oh, well, other people are writing content. I should write content. Or other people are doing podcasts. I should do a podcast, or whatever it is, other people are throwing dinners. And I think ultimately, you know, so much of the value in this job comes from compounding and doing things over time. I mean, you’ve certainly seen this with your podcast, which has been a remarkable success of compounding. And it’s really hard to do things that compound if you don’t actually get energy from them. It’s it’s way the person that actually enjoys it is going to beat you at it 10 times out of 10.
2:46
I couldn’t agree more
2:54
on today’s special segment. We have Ariana Simpson of Andreessen Horowitz, if you could share one piece of advice with a young, new investor, what would you tell them?
3:03
I would tell them to write it’s by far the best way of building a brand and showing that you have thoughtful perspectives on whatever category it is that you’re interested in working in. I wrote a lot. I wrote and I tweeted a lot in my early career. Honestly, I should do more of it even now, but it was hugely valuable for me. I can directly trace many of the best things that happened in my career to things that I wrote, and I know this to be true of a number of other people as well. So to me, it seems like the obvious, the obvious thing to do, the thing is that it’s hard. So despite my often giving this advice, you would be surprised, or maybe not, at how few people actually do it. And the fact that it’s hard is what makes it valuable. Because if it weren’t hard, everybody would do it, and therefore it wouldn’t be a distinguishing factor. So I will continue to say it. I don’t know if anybody will take my advice. A few have and generally to very good success. So I hope people do, because I think it’s really a way of clarifying your thinking, putting together coherent perspectives, realizing where you have gaps in your own thinking, and it can be a huge accelerant for your career.
4:32
That will conclude this installment of investor stories. If you’re enjoying the program and would like to see it continue, take a moment and leave a five star review in iTunes. Okay, that will wrap things up for today until next time over. Prepare, choose carefully and invest confidently. Thanks for joining me.
