Mark Suster is an entrepreneur who became a VC after transferring two of his companies and is dedicated to finding passionate entrepreneurs.
In my first 5 years as a VC, I didn't talk about what a good VC should look like, because frankly, I don't know either. I just do my job and try to improve a little bit every day.
Ten years after being a VC, when new colleagues asked me what my experience was, I started to have my ideas.
My first piece of advice is "don't be too smart". Most VCs have some academic achievements and have successful careers, venture capital firms ask them to be investors, and they are able to raise capital. Therefore, everyone will think that the function of VC is to have a clear view of the market, trends, technology dynamics, etc., take witty actions, and have insight that others do not have.
But I don't think so.
Entrepreneurs should have insights that others don't have, and what we VCs have to do is identify which entrepreneurs and managers have the best ideas and the ability to deal with various complex situations.
So I would say that the work we do essentially is human work, and our core skill is to be able to identify and persuade talent. We then help entrepreneurs find other talent who wants to get involved in starting a business, but doesn't have their own entrepreneurial ideas yet.
We help entrepreneurs when they are in difficulty, we are sometimes coaches, sometimes we are opponents of problems, we help them resolve conflicts between partners, we help them face adversity and success.
That's why I often say:
The role of the VC is that of the "chief psychologist".
We might help a management team with some tough strategic issues or negotiations, but these are tactical. The biggest contribution we can make is to add more complementary talents to some talented teams.
Think about how deeply The addition of Sheryl Sandberg in the early days of Facebook had had on Mark Zuckerberg, who could still be in charge of products and strategy, while Sheryl was in charge of operations.
Essentially, venture capital is human capital.
The role of the VC is the opponent of the problem. We have to be meticulous in our questioning, (to invest in dark horses www.touheima.com crowdfunding platforms that focus on the cultural and creative field) because we stand higher and see more clearly in many cases, and we were also in the position of entrepreneurs when we were young.
As a VCs, I often connect with the most talented people, some of whom I have worked with for many years and look for opportunities to work with them again. There are very few talented people, they are natural leaders, they are committed to success, they are passionate about entrepreneurship, and I especially want to help them find opportunities.
Today, I'm going to talk about a guy who, Gregg Johnson, has just left the Salesforce.com for a decade to become the CEO of Invoca, a company I invest in, which makes me very proud.
Gregg and I worked at Salesforce more than a decade ago. Gregg graduated from Stanford University, pursued an MBA from Wharton, and worked for BCG, a consulting firm. I knew he was smart and capable, but what I appreciated even more was gregg's speed at turning ideas into actions. I noticed that the team members were naturally attracted to him because he was a doer, not just a preacher, and I admired him very much.
So when I left that company and became a VC, I still had a close relationship with Gregg, one of the few people I wanted to work with. Other members of our team at the time included now CTO (Ryan Lissack) and CEO of DataSift (Tim Barker), and we, the former members of Salesforce, wanted to change.
But Gregg chose to stay, took on more responsibilities, and became a senior member of Salesforce's Marketing Cloud team. I think if he wants to try more, he might leave and then we might still have an intersection.
Over the past three years, Invoca's enterprise customer base has grown by 550%, including major customers such as Microsoft, Allstate, and SunTrust. Its recurring revenue grew by more than 500% and its transaction size grew by 276%. What's more, we recently secured a $30 million funding round, which gave us the resources we needed to build a global enterprise software company.
The Team at Invoca has worked very well over the past few years, and I am very honored that Gregg has decided to join and take us to new heights.
I often mention that "in a company big or small, a few key people can change the face of the whole company", which is my core principle as a VC.
I've finally come to understand that the only difference in venture capital is the people you make, the people you want to work with, the entrepreneurs who want you to join their boards, the executives of the early-stage startups you invest in because they believe you, and the executives of the big companies that are willing to work with the startups you invest in because they believe your words.
Venture capital is ultimately an industry that deals with people, there is nothing peculiar about it, and the team members who struggle are the real talents.