Intensity in VC as a current VC
“You’re looking to hire people that are a little damaged / unhinged. Intensity does not come with ‘normal functioning people’. Drive comes from somewhere, not nowhere.”
- From: outlierspathDotcom/2024/07/14/speed-above-all-else
Observations
I’ve personally observed this affinity in VCs themselves and who they choose to invest in. Successful VCs are not normal people, and most have no desire to be. They optimize their time, their lives, and their social circles to support these abnormalities. There are some externalities as a result: they could be absentee parents, they could rely on illicit substances, they could optimize their health obsessively—all to dial up the intensity. Balance and VCs are like oil and water.
Actionable Tips for Founders & Job Seekers
If you’re trying to raise funds as a founder or seeking to join a VC, demonstrating this unhinged ferocity could be one way to differentiate yourself:
Rapid Responses: Respond to emails with break-neck speed.
Iterative Learning: Show you’re learning and iterating rapidly.
Cult of Personality: Build a cult of personality around yourself. Personify your absolute devotion to your mission, and the 💵💵💵 will follow.
Your Thoughts?
Have you noticed these traits in successful VCs or founders?
Would love to hear if others share or disagree with my opinion.
I think this is a bit hyperbolic. A lot of VCs are pretty well adjusted: they're active parents, don't kill themselves working, and otherwise have decent balance. If anything, there's a view that VCs are lazy & take too many vacations. But I do think there's an intensity that the best ones have. They love networking, they're ultra competitive, and they're on all the time. They love chasing deals, working with companies, and talking shop. In many ways, VC is similar to sales, and attracts the type that would thrive in a sales role.
Hah, fair. Maybe a bit hyperbolic. My VC career has always been at early stage VCs and in my experience they fall into the "ultra-competitive" category. My perspective is probably skewed.
I want to echo the other comment, VC is a type of job where the focus is on building networks and finding opportunities in those networks (to help your founders, to find an investment, to get an LP, to trade a favor, to get information about a market, to learn more about a space), we're very opportunistic in that sense, and the best VCs are good at doing this with a high velocity. I think it's true that extreme curiosity and desire to learn new things is very typical of a VC, but the cult of personality stuff is more of what you see from VCs who successfully market themselves and have been around a long time, but this is more the exception and not the rule.
RE: "Cult of personality" - In early stage VC, being amongst the first to see an opportunity is of high value. I've observed more of a push for this sort of marketing and "brand" awareness to drive inbound.
Since there are a lot of aspiring, current, and ex-bankers on this forum, one point I want to emphasize is VC intensity is a very different form than banking intensity. It's not as rushed or frantic. There aren't firedrills where you have to get something out in 4 hours and pull an all nighter. The hours aren't nearly as bad, and more importantly, your hours are largely self directed, meaning you can fill up your calendar however you want. The intensity comes from never ending pressure to see and win the best deals. There are very few great deals out there. So VCs feel like they have to take tons of meetings, go to events, and talk shop with others constantly to be in the flow. You want to hear about every deal out there. A lot of what you see as intensity is driven by competitive FOMO.
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