You're considering a career in Venture Capital. What skills do you need to develop first?

In considering a career in Venture Capital, it's crucial to develop skills in financial analysis, valuation, and due diligence. Understanding how to assess the potential of start-up ventures, negotiate deals, and manage a diverse portfolio of investments is essential. Additionally, honing skills in market research, networking, and effective communication will be beneficial. Building a strong foundation in business and finance, as well as staying updated on industry trends, technological advancements, and emerging markets, will also be valuable for a successful venture capital career.

I am a total outsider to venture capital, but I am drawing on my experiences as a journalist who had based his activities on information gathering, which I hope, is pretty much the same activity in both professions. Impartiality is a key element of the right approach. You must consume not just data and information, but loads of opinion - based, or view-based explanations as well. Wide based information pool is needed. Plurality creates the fruit of the loom. Learn to be able to argue both for the pro and for the contra decisions. Analytical disposition never stops. If you are good at it you will do in every situation and in every minute.

Diving into venture capital, I’ve realized it’s deeply rooted in relationships. Success hinges on the ability to connect, communicate, and empathize. Building trust with entrepreneurs, peers, and mentors is crucial. Effective communication, active listening, and constructive collaboration are essential. Negotiation skills are vital, as is understanding the challenges and aspirations of founders. My focus? Interpersonal skills. They’re the toolkit for creating rapport, attracting talent, and identifying opportunities. Venture capital isn’t a numbers game; it’s a people business.???? ??

I am working as a coach. Developing people products, companies. Interpersonal skills are very much intimate, very personal. I know from my coaching experiences that even such hard elements of our personality as the interpersonal skills can be developed. People are different. Do not fall for the popular notion that only outgoing people can do this profession. Introverts can identify similar characters and can approach them as much efficiently as the opposite group is deemed to be able to do it

Venture capital thrives on dynamism and pace. It demands a relentless pursuit of learning and adaptation to new trends, technologies, and markets. My approach? Stay curious and open to exploring new ideas and domains. It’s crucial to keep abreast of the latest developments and innovations. Being agile and flexible, ready to adjust strategies based on new insights, is non-negotiable. Curiosity and learning agility are my compass for navigating ahead of the curve, spotting opportunities, and tackling challenges. This industry doesn’t just evolve; it transforms, and so must we.

Do not enter this industry if you do not have these skills. Venture capital is about new learning. Even if you know something very well, you can not know everything. Your mind is not a bibliotheque. Can not be. Intellectual curiosity and its assistants, your learning capacity will develop you. Sorting out fixed things is not the realm of venture capital. Companies, industries are different, any particular point in time or place can be slightly or greatly different from the earlier ones. Bridging these gaps needs the attributes mentioned above.

you need financial expertise to conduct a good due diligence, analytical skills to select the best companies and excellent negotiations skills to interact with your LPs, entrepreneus and other coinvestors

Preserving the sameness is not venturing. To overcome the present, you need to create a new framework, in which either the frame or its parts are working in a new way. You need the overstep the existing things, and you must also make alternatives to the existing ones. In this process we use our mental processess that we banally vision, and use our skills which are called creativity. In their ordinary form they are called predictions and problem solving.

I think it’s important to acknowledge that VC takes time. A friend of mine started out in VC 15 years ago, became partner in a VC firm five years ago and saw his first carry payout last year. The average time from inception to closing of a fund at one of the leading VC firms in the Nordics is 17 years (!). So you need to understand that although startups move fast, VCs make money very slowly.

A career in VC is alike the career of the startup. There will be a lot of upscaling and downscaling phases and persistence is key to ensure the right exit. There is a lot of uncertainty in entrepreneurship and VC markets. Therefore, beyond counting on building up resilience muscles, a good information and data dashboard of the portfolio companies situation is essential. A good command of personal skills to keep up to date with the founders and bring to them key connections, ideas and solving problem attitude are part of the contribution to the goals.

In venture capital, the challenges are as significant as the rewards. Facing uncertainty, ambiguity, pressure, and rejection is part of the daily grind. My journey has taught me the importance of coping with failures and setbacks, not just enduring them but learning from them. Persistence in following through on goals and commitments, despite obstacles, is a test of character and dedication. Resilience and perseverance aren’t just traits; they’re necessities for overcoming adversity, achieving success, and fostering growth, both professionally and personally. This path demands not only a thick skin but a relentless spirit and an open mind.????

Venture capital is bending the reality into a new shape. You deal with the reality whose status as reality come from the facts and the sensations that roots them into our thinking, and our experiences. They are facts and conditions, because we have met tem on countless occasions. Countless - which means we are unable to trace them back to their origins. We are intertwined with them. We lost our reflection on them. A new arrangement needs to uproot the embeddedness of these arrangements. They are hard to pull out. Resiliencexand perseverance can help us in this movement.

In my opinion, the #1 way to understand the world of VC investing, and to be able to provide useful advise to your portfolio companies, is to start your own company. This doesn't have to be a VC-backed tech startup, but of course it helps to give you an understanding of the ins and outs of how investors reason, work, and contribute (for good and for bad). VCs that lack startup experience simply cannot fathom the struggle when going through a liquidity crisis, facing layoffs, or customers backing out of a life-saving deal at the last minute. That said, you also need to understand financial modeling, portfolio theory, branding, communication and HR, but for that you can always bring in the occasional lawyer, investment banker or ad agency.

Make a few small angel investments yourself, get a sense of the sectors you want to have an impact in, get to learn legal docs and terms, get comfortable risking your own money. Lots of courses to support entry into the sector.

Venture capital is as much a personal journey as a professional one. Embracing diversity sparks innovation and better decisions. Mentorship is crucial, providing and receiving guidance enriches both sides. Balancing intense work with personal well-being is key to sustainability. Giving back, through knowledge sharing and supporting new VCs, strengthens the entire ecosystem. These lessons underscore the importance of growth, resilience, and community in navigating the VC landscape.

As Bill Gurley said, VC is also a very much sales profession. You need to always be on the lookout for opportunities and to have the persuasive skills to secure investments... In this current competitive landscape being a top-notch salesperson is essential to spot promising ventures and convince investors to come on board.