November 2024
I’m now approaching the 1-year mark of entering the venture capital industry. The last year has been incredibly challenging for me, both personally and professionally, but also quite rewarding. I wanted to take a few minutes and jot down some reflections and learnings, and also share my thoughts going into 2025.
When I decided to leave BCG, I was not 100% sure what I wanted to do next. I had some general profiles I was pursuing:
As I spoke with close friends and mentors, applied and interviewed at various roles, and generally reflected on my career thus far and my objectives, I become more and more curious about early-stage technology investing as the next arc of my career. The problem was the timing. This was late 2023, and everyone was telling me now was a HORRIBLE time to get into venture. Firms were cutting staff, valuations had plunged, LPs’ wallets were shut, etc. Things were not rosy at all, and trying to break in during this downturn seemed foolish to most. By most metrics and general sentiment, the VC industry was in the dumps; it seemed like a crazy decision to leave a “stable” job at a consulting firm to make a career pivot into venture. As I joined Ardent Venture Partners (thx Dan & Phil 🙏🏽) and began my journey into VC as an intern, I quickly gained conviction that I was in the right place. I was learning every day, building new skills, and meeting incredible entrepreneurs. Perhaps most importantly: I was building relationships. For me the lesson here was a reflection of my investing view overall: you need to make non-consensus bets in order to unlock any alpha. Despite the short-term distress, I am bullish on venture as an asset class, and I knew this was an industry I was enjoying and wanted to spend the rest of my career in.
Moving into 2025, things are looking much brighter. We have lower rates, low unemployment, a strong consumer, expectations for a business-friendly regulatory environment, and the beginning of the biggest tech epoch of our lifetime. We’re seeing a thawing IPO and M&A market which should hopefully unblock the liquidity problems our industry have faced. I’m optimistic that the groundwork I laid in a challenging 2024 will pay off in 2025, and I’m very excited about working with Zak, Dave, Jackson, Zach, Aaron, and the whole team at MetaProp in the years ahead.
Venture, more than most types of alternative investments, is incredibly relationship-centric. Every interaction with an entrepreneur, peer investor, or limited partner (LP) is a compounding investment.
Every interaction plants seeds that could bloom in countless ways:
I'm endeavoring to build authentic relationships in what many consider to be a highly transactional industry. For me this means: