Job Description

Venture Capitalist

Almost everybody uses Facebook, Google, or Amazon. These companies started in the last 30 years. They all needed the help of early investors to get started or grow. Movies like The Social Network show the process of founding a company like Facebook. They portray fictionalized accounts of the founders and their investors. But few people know what a Venture Capitalist (VC) is.

A Venture Capitalist is an investor that specializes in new companies. These companies often cannot get capital from other sources. Investing can refer to public stocks of Fortune 500 companies. Large tech companies often had the support of VCs when they were new.

The job of a VC mimics a couple of more well-known jobs: a Judge, Coach, and Curator.

Judge

Judges at a talent show or competition must do a couple of things that VCs do too:

• Watch performances

• Compare contestants

• Choose winners

VCs deal with companies instead of contestants. VCs listen to pitches from companies that discuss the problem they are solving. They also discuss whether their product is a good solution and whether they can grow in the market.

VCs compare contestants with previous winners and other contestants. VCs look at information about the market, financials, competitors, and more.

Finally, VCs need to pick winners. There are often a lot of good contestants in the competition. VCs can only invest in the best of the best. VCs spend a lot of time trying to choose the winners who can be successful in the future.

Coach

Once VCs choose a winner, VCs need to turn into coaches. Coaches help players win but are not actually on the field. VCs help startups but do not run them day-to-day. VCs do that in a couple of ways:

• Help the winners get recognition

• Work with the winners to make them successful

• Match the winners with others who can help them

The game does not end when a company gets an investment from VCs. The company needs to use the money to grow and build a valuable business. VCs work with our companies to help them get recognized where it matters. VCs help with public relations and finding possible customers.

VCs also need to help our companies be successful in the market. VCs help founders with making difficult decisions. Founders price their offerings, hire new employees, or design their products.

As a coach, you introduce your players to the support staff who help them to succeed. VCs introduce our companies to advisors, customers, and possible hires.

Curator

Curators of artwork must think as VCs do. Like curators, VCs must:

• Choose artwork that fits together

• Make sure that the artwork fits the requirements

• Plan for artwork strategy long-term

Most museums can’t have random pieces of artwork unrelated to each other. VCs don’t invest in random assets that are not related. VCs generally only invest in early-stage companies (although there are caveats).

VCs have areas in which they focus on investing. Curators ensure the artwork they choose fits the museum.

Another aspect of investing is the idea of portfolio construction. A fund with many investments needs to structure its portfolio to optimize returns.

Flesch Reading Score: 61.5

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 7.3