Alfred und Pat glauben, dass die wichtigste Zutat, um ein besserer Entscheidungsträger im Venture-Bereich (und wahrscheinlich auch im Geschäft allgemein) zu werden, Mut ist. "Wenn du einen lächerlichen Betrag für ein Unternehmen zahlen willst, das du vor einem Monat gesehen und abgelehnt hast... wie Pat es mit Snowflake getan hat... musst du echten Mut haben." "Oder das andere Extrem, wo niemand dieses Unternehmen irgendwo auf der Welt mag, außer dir."

Venture hiring is weird in that it’s usually extremely long or extremely fast. There’s no 4-6 week “process” to get the job. I often talk to aspiring investors who’ve been talking to a fund for a few weeks and think they’re about to get the job. And then I talk to them a few months later and they’re super disappointed at how slow the process is going. Unless it’s a pure junior support role (sourcing/diligence) that they’re actively hiring for, you’re probably going to have to get to know that fund for 6+ months before they’ll offer you the job. The reasons for this are a few: 1) the best roles are created or unadvertised broadly so you’re usually forcing them to add a net new role they weren’t hiring for, which makes it harder to create a forcing function to move quickly. The adage that venture firms are never hiring and always hiring is very true. 2) more investors usually make a team worse, not better 3) more investors dilutes carry economics 4) trust is really hard in small teams 5) the demand for good venture jobs is higher than the supply so you’re competing vs a lot of talented people 6) hiring is maybe the fifth most important activity at any time within a firm, so it’s easy to delay I talked to Susa for a year before I joined and that story is super common. The only exception is when a fund borderline hunts you out because they’re looking for your sector expertise or network and are willing to move fast to do it. That’s rare. The takeaway is to keep many kettles in the fire and don’t overindex on the excitement from a couple meetings. Play the long game and build real relationships because it’s probably going to be slower than you think to break in.

The big money is made in the waiting