Managing Partner at Dragonfly. Effective Altruist. Airbnb, Earn.com (acquired by Coinbase) alum. Writer. Former poker pro. Donate 33% of my income to charity.
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Here’s what I would do if I was a young person trying to break into VC:
Write.
Short writeups, on Twitter. Not generic market philosophical thinkpieces, because those will be assumed to be AI slop or regurgitated research. No one will read it unless you’re brilliant, which you’re probably not.
Original research, on a specific company or sub-sector. If you want to write about robotics, even that is too broad. Narrow it down. Humanoid robotics, or healthcare robotics, military robotics, etc. Get really granular. So granular most people won’t care. If it’s something you could get by Googling, it’s not narrow enough.
You will not be able to find to do “original research” easily. This is not something you can do from a university library. You will have to go talk to people who work at these companies. Journalists who cover these companies. Pay for private industry-specific research / newsletters. Follow all of the employees/anons who are tweeting gossip. Integrate a picture that someone reading TechCrunch doesn’t see.
Then write about this sector and leading + new startups and tag / DM every investor at every major firm who covers your space (you can find them because they’ve invested in one of the companies in the sector). If they express interest, offer coffee meetings with everyone you can. Some will take you up on it.
Do this enough times, you’ll develop a reputation and get offered a job in venture. Don’t need to go to business school, don’t need to have a great angel portfolio or any of the above.
“Get good deal flow” is wonderful if you have access to it, but most people just can’t do this. If you’re already surrounded by Stanford undergrads, you probably don’t need advice to break into VC. But the above strategy–in principle anyone can do. Just need to have abnormal levels of agency and a willingness to basically do the job of a junior VC without anyone telling you to.
(While you’re doing this, best thing to do in the meantime is to also work at a company in the sector you’re chasing after. But not always possible depending on your background. Thankfully, VC does not require any particular background. Lots of weirdos in VC, myself included.)
I guarantee you, everyone wants to hire someone who can do the above. But very few candidates have this degree of agency.
VC is not a “tracked” career. Hiring is arbitrary, firms are generally small and do not scale, and there is no standard path. This is good for you if you’re willing to be weird. The thing that VCs have in common is that they are passionate about startups and understanding new industries. If you show that you already have that, a path will open for you.
Originally published on X, November 2025.
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