The Venture Ecosystem for Emerging VCs

When I started learning about VC I thought VC was very inhibitive to folks with my background. I wanted to understand that, and find a way to do venture differently. I wanted to do venture full time and went through GoingVC specifically with the aim of learning what was needed to break into VC. I was already trying to source great companies on my own and send deals to firms, but there wasn't that clear feedback loop into how I could get better and improve my sourcing. That's what really helped and motivated me at GoingVC. The feedback I got from my peers in the program definitely helped me to go on and get the roles I've had in Venture afterwards.

I really enjoyed the courses. I took my time building a network through the Slack channels, and tried to meet everyone in my cohort. Side Door Ventures, the fund I'm currently a Principal at, was basically born out of the GoingVC Ecosystem. The four initial employees at the fund were all people I met at GoingVC, and we're all still with the fund today. The four of us along with our General Partner started an experiment off the side of our desks five years ago, and now we've raised a family of funds. We're currently investing out of our second generalist pre-seed & seed stage fund, and just wrapped up a Web3/Crypto fund raise as well. So yeah, the GoingVC experiment ended up working for me!

I saw the quality of the curriculum - and even though I went to business school I would even go in so far as saying that GoingVC's curriculum is on par if not better than top business schools.​I'm not sure if there's any program out there like GoingVC, having helped other friends through the process, that I can think of that's all encompassing and give you a strong foundation to not only getting into VC but how to propel yourself forward.

Going VC was really valuable to me. The models that you get from the assignments, as well as just the library, was really helpful to showcase myself to the [Render Capital] Partners. They realized I know how to make a portfolio construction model to showcase how many initial checks we have left to deploy out of reserves...so coming in and pulling that [GoingVC] model with my own touches on it... from what I was able to learn showcasing my ability to be a VC was really helpful.

The [GoingVC] program was a real help in terms of just getting a deep dive understanding of the industry and all the aspects appropriately to look at things that are a little bit more at a nuanced layer…whether it be from GPs, or people that have gone through the program - being able to ask those additional questions was really helpful. Having the investor program was also crucial in terms of my understanding what conviction around a great company actually means. I was also lucky enough to be a member that had a company that got funded.

I was pleasantly surprised through the program, overall around the 5 core pillars of the GoingVC program, the network being the main reason I joined, but also the education and opportunity was incredible as well. The private Slack group has been helpful during my search where job opportunities are posted on a daily basis. I was studying VC in a big way but the GoingVC curriculum heightened that awareness, especially for me, given my expertise was in early stage finance.

I did the 1 year MBA program at Stanford and I still found GoingVC very valuable, despite having done plenty of courses in entrepreneurship and investing. What I found particularly useful was the community - not just that you join a great network that you can ask questions from but also a safe space for networking, whether it's for learning more about VC or looking for jobs in the space. Someone from the GoingVC Network and staff also gave a hard look at my CV because I was pivoting from a different industry. That process of revising my CV specifically for VC focused path was really helpful.

I've thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the GoingVC community, I think I've had the opportunity to engage with it and a little bit of a different way… on the side part time, I'd do a ton of events to build the ecosystem here in Austin. And that kind of leads me to what I've seen to be the most valuable aspect of being involved with GoingVC, which has been the community and a lot of the relationships that you can build as a result of being a part of the community. I've kind of taken it a little bit further as well and have done some writing projects for GoingVC as well… It was a really good way to pick different brains, add some of my own takes to and put together playbooks that can build my brand as well as offer more resources... so I feel like I've gotten a lot out of it. I definitely think it's worth it if you're kind of like on the fence about joining

When I started Forma Prime, the idea was, we're going to go back to something that I had actually gotten to experience during the GoingVC program which…I think gives you the ability to clarify how you think about your thesis, how you think about being able to build up your understanding of how to do due diligence, and what you want to diligence. And that's sort of actually how I landed on founding Forma Prime in the first place. Today we're doing some amazing things with companies in quantum computing, semiconductors, and sensors. And fortunately, we have a few companies that have raised multimillion dollar rounds, and one of them has just become a unicorn. So it's a really exciting opportunity to be part of a group where you can actually experience this.

Business school sort of teaches you everything - you learn a little bit of finance, accounting etc, but it doesn't have a ton of VC classes and so I actually did GoingVC alongside my time at business school and the classes really, really helped me. I'd say outside of that a couple of other things that Going VC was super helpful for was number one the job board. There are lots of job boards out there for venture but the one at GoingVC is super super comprehensive. I got my first internship at Distributed Ventures through the GoingVC job board.

I came into GoingVC with some investing experience, but I wasn't certain I wanted to make a career out of the industry and I wanted to get more experience. I was really happy to join the program, it was invaluable. It provided so much access and information. I spent a lot of time working on my thesis and learning what industry I wanted to play in. It's a rare opportunity, and one to take advantage of. This is one of those things that you get out of it what you put in. I got so much out of it, there's a lot of opportunities on the other side. I have friends at other firms that I met through the program that I still chat with to this day.

It's incredible the amount of resources that GoingVC has - the reading materials, the exercises, the community. I think it really made a difference in me being able to break into the industry.