The Surge of Platform Hires in Venture Capital

ver the past couple years, venture firms are increasingly bringing on platform operators to amplify the firm’s brand and reputation and offer tangible value to founders beyond financial backing, such as helping portfolio companies navigate challenges in recruitment, customer and vendor partnerships, marketing and networking. Platform teams act as strategic differentiators in a competitive market and help alleviate bandwidth constraints for the investment team by owning time-consuming founder support, programming, logistical and relationship-building tasks. 

If you are aiming to break into venture capital, there are two main reasons to pay attention to platform teams. First, you may want to work in a platform role yourself, which can be a strong entry point into the industry and a way to build relationships across a firm’s founder network. Second, in an investing capacity, you may want to leverage the platform teams as a resource. They are often the first touchpoint for founders, they manage the firm’s public presence, and they run programs and partnerships that can give you early visibility into promising companies.

Platform teams also act as a signal for where a firm is focusing its energy. If a firm is hiring a community lead, that may indicate a push into earlier-stage sourcing. If it is building a content team, it might be preparing to shape public narrative in a sector. For an aspiring investor, watching these hires can reveal opportunities to connect with the right people, understand where deal flow is being cultivated, and identify thematic areas worth tracking. 

Funds are increasingly turning to AI to automate the more manual and repetitive platform work, whether that’s fund operations, portfolio tracking, lead tracking and light-touch outreach. Even with these tools in play, the personal layer remains irreplaceable. Founders continue to value real conversations, trusted recommendations, and hands-on support that only strategic operators and investors can deliver.

Are Platform Roles The Right Fit For You

Platform roles in VC are often a strong fit for people who thrive in wearing many hats, who love being a connector, and who have a flair for marketing and communications. These roles attract high-functioning generalists with a broad range of business skills who enjoy moving across strategy, execution, community-building, and founder support.

For those who want to stay close to early-stage companies without taking on an investing role, platform roles offer a unique vantage point. They are a good match for low-ego operators who are energized by helping others succeed and building systems that scale.

Platform and Investing: Distinct Tracks

Can a platform role be a stepping stone to an investing role?

In general, no. At most VC firms, platform and investing operate in distinct tracks. Platform teams focus on founder support, events, content, talent, and community. Investing teams handle sourcing, diligence, and capital deployment. As a result, it’s uncommon for platform professionals to transition directly into investing roles. 

That said, there are fringe cases where crossover happens. One example is the Chief of Staff (CoS) role to a General Partner. In some firms, a CoS attends founder meetings, prepares diligence, and supports investment decisions. In others, the role is more administrative and focused on internal operations. The opportunity to break into investing depends heavily on the specific firm and the scope of the CoS responsibilities. Another avenue is if the platform role is heavily focused on sourcing and managing founder relationships (e.g. running community / events), and you are able to act as a superconnector bringing in and maintaining an active network of promising founders. Whether a crossover can happen also depends a lot on the structure and culture of the fund. Sometimes working in a platform role at one fund may help you build up the reputation and network that results in an investing opportunity at another fund. 

Fund Size Shapes the Role

At Larger Funds

Platform roles at large firms tend to be highly specialized and functional. For example, a content lead may focus exclusively on producing thought leadership or social media. An events lead focuses on curating and planning founder summits and dinners. These roles provide meaningful impact to the firm and portfolio and are a separate, distinct department from the investment team.

After A16z acquired Erik Torenberg’s podcast network a few months ago, the firm has increased its media-focused platform building to further strengthen its brand and ecosystem influence. Erik has been hiring across a range of roles for his team from social media lead, community builder, content producer, podcast host to a Chief of Staff. To be competitive for these types of platform roles, your previous functional work experience and skillsets also need to be more specialized. 

At Leaner Funds

In contrast, smaller funds with lean teams may hire a single person to run all platform and portfolio support. These roles may be titled “Head / Director of Platform,” “Platform and Community Manager,” or “Portfolio and Platform Lead.”

These “generalist” roles are usually filled by seasoned operators who have experience in fast-paced startup environments in community leadership, marketing, GTM and business development. These roles offer exposure to every part of the firm’s operations: supporting founders with various asks and processes, organizing events big and small, developing content and programming, managing vendors, creating scalable tools, and helping with community engagement. Given the wider lens into fund operations and founder support, they can be proximate or contribute to investment discussions. 

VCs can find this role incredibly hard to hire for. The ideal candidate not only needs to be a strong cultural fit, but also bring a rare blend of traits: someone who can zoom in on details while keeping the big picture in mind, build relationships with ease while staying focused on execution, and work autonomously while staying highly communicative and responsive. Different stakeholders at the firm may also have varied expectations of the role and where to focus efforts. As a candidate, be sure to have open conversations about priorities and firm culture from the beginning, and to understand how you would be expected to represent the fund and brand image. It may also be mutually beneficial to consider trial work periods to determine fit. 

Community Manager Roles offer founder network building

More early-stage funds and venture studios are now hiring dedicated community managers. The role focuses on running events, building peer networks, and creating founder touchpoints early in the funnel. While these roles are not directly tied to capital deployment, they can offer early visibility into promising founders and companies. A few examples of community responsibilities include:

• Running founder education programs (e.g. hackathons, panels, curated dinners, happy hours, AMAs, masterclasses)
• Building and maintaining slack channels / Circle Groups or other groups 
• Managing and distributing knowledge and content via newsletters or portals 
• Owning partnerships with cloud platforms, AI tools, and vendor marketplaces
• Building, owning and automating CRM systems to track engagement across founder touchpoint

These roles offer a unique opportunity to build trust early with founders, especially in the pre-seed and idea-stage ecosystem. Funds typically seek candidates with a strong word-of-mouth reputation for attracting top talent, whether that’s through past operating roles, communities they've assembled, or audiences they have built through thought leadership they've shared publicly. 

Chief of Staffs can be a great apprenticeship

Chief of staff to an investing partner is one of the most amorphous platform roles. It can vary from a highly administrative function to an apprenticeship into VC investing, where the CoS sits in on pitch meetings, helps write investment memos, manages diligence pipelines, and builds systems that enable the firm to scale. Funds are able to leverage hungry, high-caliber talent to free up Partners’ time for the highest value work, to get a fresh perspective and gain exposure to young founders within the CoS’s social and professional network.

This role is often designed for someone early in their career — typically with fewer than four years of experience and often just coming out of their first full-time role. Many firms pitch it as a one- to two-year rotational opportunity to gain inside exposure to how VC works. After their CoS tenure, individuals often go on to become founders, join startups, or in some cases transition into investing roles at the same or other firms especially if you’re working for a well-known partner.