The past few days, I have been living the VC life. And not the glamorous side of it either, ripping my Juul pod while rocking my Patagonia vest and All-Birds while offering generic advice to anyone who will listen. No, the past 48 hours has been deep in DD, Due Diligence.
Venture Capital is misunderstood, similar to the law. I use this example as most people have no idea what Private Equity does, so they reserve their opinions on the matter. However, thanks to TV, people seem to have a misguided view of what being a lawyer looks like, distorted entirely by a singular show, Suits. My lawyer friends laugh painfully when I point out that their career path rarely features wise-cracking in court, expensive dinners, or model-esque paralegals.
Venture Capital is similar. You may think that there aren’t any tv shows that hit mass appeal that present a glorified view of this industry, but you’d be wrong. Shark Tank (or Dragon’s Den if you’re in the UK) is essentially a hyperspeed version of early stage equity investing; instead of software companies, they’re looking at pet toys and ice creams, but otherwise the process feels about right. Come up with a cool idea, pitch it to fools, and secure the bag.
Both these shows have a skerrick of truth to them. Some lawyers really do go to court and passionately persuade a jury to free an innocent person. But a lot (and I mean a LOT) more spend their time hunched over documents.
In the VC space, it’s the same. Yes, there is the “fun” part where the founders come in and show you the demo/deck, but then you have an associate trawl through tens, if not hundreds of documents to find out what really is going on under the hood.
I’ve been doing this recently for work, not as an investor, but it has given me a more honest view of what a career in VC might look like.
It would serve a lot of people if this was more common; seeing what life is really like, not just what you see on TV.
P.S: 2024 recap is coming, I promise!