sometimes you’ll meet someone who seems like they are “born” to be in a certain industry. if you were to stereotype people in this industry, you might think of this exact person - their personality traits, the words they use, their worldviews and frameworks, etc.
i’m always curious to hear other people’s advice on “breaking into vc” (my top two thoughts are “do the job before you get the job” and “lean into your strengths”). but one idea i read a while back stuck in my mind (and it has both pros and cons) - the tip was to get as much “context” on vc as possible. especially as someone who’s breaking in, perhaps younger, the more you can drop hints that you know the way the game is played, the more you can de-risk yourself to someone who might hire you. if you’re deep in an industry, you can tell when someone’s an insider by the way they book meeting times, the style of the presentations they make, the words they use, etc.
it might sound pretty sad to try and fit yourself into a mold just to get a job, and it might be (will address later). but you can’t deny it’s extremely helpful if you’re a young person just starting out your career. the more you can get context on the industry you’re going into - knowing the right names and stories, using the right customs (words, dress, etc) - the better chance you have of breaking in or rising up.
as an example, you could design your resume in a completely different way than everyone else, but if you do this, recruiters scanning through hundreds of resumes might throw yours immediately in the bin. you could choose to not have a linkedin or portfolio page, you could decide to be brutally honest and choose to be casual rather than professional in work settings, and you can deliberately reject your industry’s customs, but this seems to only work in certain circumstances, and is a less-guaranteed path to short-term success.
rejecting context and customs may actually be better for some people’s overall success (and help you stand out in the beginning), but the path will be a lot longer and harder. for example, if you want to start a vc fund, instead of getting operating experience and then joining a firm to learn under an experienced partner before spinning out, you could go straight to raising a fund out of college. it’s a lot harder to raise a fund without a track record, pedigree, or a really unique insight earned from being in the industry. but if you’re able to pull it off, it probably says something good about you.
there’s nothing wrong with being a sponge, and hanging around people you respect to learn from them. you can choose to accept or reject the way they do things, depending on what resonates with you. but this could still be seen as gathering “context.”
context exists in every industry - the way that presentations are made in startups / tech is very different than the way they’re made in investment banking / finance. the way that people vet each other in the art / creative scene (instagram / outfit / vibe) is very different than the way people do it in the tech scene (twitter / personal website / linkedin). people seem to like having their sub-cultures, their in-groups and out-groups, and identifying with a certain set of customs.
but context is probably especially important (perhaps unfortunately so) in vc, because of the amount of pattern-matching and following-the-herd that happens in this industry. it’s probably a bad thing (because a lot of venture outcomes are non-consensus), but since pattern-matching is so rampant, the system is way easier to game.
i think young people are figuring out how to game the system earlier than they used to. founders seem to be getting younger and younger, and i meet high schoolers and college freshmen in tech that come across as incredibly sharp (and super far past where i was at that age). this could be due to a number of things (y combinator’s success from selecting for young technical hackers, the proliferation of fellowship programs like contrary / pear / etc, the increasing accessibility of startup-related content online, etc). whatever it is, young people seem to be getting “context” in tech a lot better and faster than they used to.
this isn’t necessarily a good or bad thing - it means a lot of young people know how to fundraise (many are landing valuations in the double-digit millions while still pre-product / very early purely off of their storytelling ability and perceived sharpness). but many investors are good at seeing through bullshit and won’t just back a young person with a cool story. also, when it comes to company-building and hiring, young sharp founders who raised a lot will separate out into people who can execute and people who can only spin a story. that’s fine.
context can be weaponized in any industry - this is oftentimes known as grifting. you know how to say the right words and build trust / elicit emotions in people, you know the lower bound of milestones you have to hit to barely stay alive and raise the next round, etc. it’s never really a good strategy because it’s not sustainable, you’ll get discovered eventually if you only have “context” and no substance.
people with zero context on an industry oftentimes win. it’s cool to read about these stories because people like underdogs. it happens all the time in tech, you might be starting a company in healthcare without a background in the space and healthcare vc’s will tell you “that’s not the way things are done.” and then you prove them wrong and you win, precisely because you are an outsider, you’re creative, you’re not constrained by limitations and assumptions that the industry insiders believe to be true (but turn out to be wrong).
so should you try and build as much “context” on an industry as you can? recently i’ve been leaning more towards the authentic approach towards everything. which means not even thinking too hard about this question at all. if you’re someone who is naturally good at playing games, you love sales, and you’re good at reading people, then you’ll probably unconsciously pick up on your industry’s context and do well that way. on the other hand if you’re naturally someone who likes to break norms, has a strong personality, enjoys being contrarian, or is naturally intuitive / less overthinking, trying to learn context and play an industry’s game won’t suit you well. seems obvious to write it out like that but it’s probably true.