What Background Makes the Best Venture Capitalists?

July 29, 2009 by Andrew Shriner
Filed under: Venture Capital 

My father was in software sales. His advice to me: ‘Don’t be in software sales.’ A good friend of mine’s father was an attorney. His advice to his son: ‘Don’t be an attorney.’ Ask a venture capitalist who hasn’t founded a company what prior experience makes a top-notch venture capitalist, and he just might just tell you the opposite of his background. The grass is greener, so they say.

There has been a long-running debate in the venture and entrepreneurial communities about what is the best prior experience to be a successful venture capitalist. I have asked many entrepreneurs and venture capitalists their opinions on this matter, and the answers vary greatly. Is it the former entrepreneurs? The former C-level execs? The HBS Baker scholars? The guys who left the venture and startup worlds to spend 18 months at Microsoft (read: me)?

Dan Primack of peHUB wrote a little piece on this question a few weeks ago where he looked at the Midas 100 List and classified them as C-suite guys, low-level operators, and non-operators (bankers, consultants, etc.). His results were that 54 lacked operating experience, and of the remaining 46 operators, 21 were at the C-level. His conclusion: inconclusive.

I’m not going to begin to dive into questions of methodology and subjectivity, but in the words of a former mentor of mine, ‘venture capital is a funny profession.’ What he meant was that it takes all kinds of skills, all kinds of backgrounds and years to find out if you’re any good.

I recall Michael Moritz of Sequoia once remarked that since he has spent his career fighting fires, it must make him a fireman. To me, that is the soul of the successful venture capitalist: you do what is necessary to put out the fire, and how you found yourself in the middle of the blaze is irrelevant.

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One Comment on What Background Makes the Best Venture Capitalists?

  1. The Venture Capital Career Path | Darth Capitalist on Fri, 2nd Oct 2009 3:05 AM

    2. [...] have already written about what backgrounds and prior experience are the best for success in the venture capital [...]

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