AMA- 15 yrs exp across consulting, VC & Growth stage company. Now a founder

I joined early stage after working for a few years in management consulting. The itch was to really learn how to build from 0 to 1, and met an incredible founder while I was exploring. VC happened subsequently naturally, as a lot of VCs prefer folks with startup experience

The environment has become really supportive for folks to start, hence have started seeing a lot of fence sitters now jumping to start on their own.

There are VCs supporting almost every sector, so it's not prudent to think of building looking at what VCs would invest in.

As an investor, you cover wider but with limited depth. As a founder, you go really deep. These are non overlapping skill-sets. However, being an ex-vc helps you raise better and being a founder helps you evaluate companies better as a vc :)

Wasn't a dilemma at all. Being an operator earlier, I always liked the action and control one gets being a founder.

Engineering & MBA from tier 1 Indian colleges. Never thought I would start on my own, but working for long in a growth stage company & VC gave me a lot of confidence. Decided to start in 2021 after finding a great co-founder.

1. I had a short tech stint pre-mba. Even after 2 years at MBA, didn't know what I really wanted (banking internship was N eye opener that it sucks, didn't like marketing). Management consulting seemed great in terms of figuring out and overall exposure
2. Excellent analytical skills, communication and proactiveness. Find options to do global projects, they add a very different layer to overall exposure and experience.
3. Will need to understand your profile a little more. It's a slightly closed group to get into, with similar minded individuals and folks look at people like them to hire.
4. VC: A financial institution where rich folks trust you with their money, assuming you would use your wisdom to generate handsome returns for them, by identifying and investing in the latest trends and backing great founders
5. Consulting is stressful and requires you to be on your toes all the time (always serving the client). It's a constant treadmill, better done early in the career. VC is relatively relaxed, often comes with entitlement as people are trying to raise from you and does offer peace.

Thank you so much! Can we expand more on 3 though? Let me know what you want to know about my Profile, happy to divulge info

No, absolutely not. Consultants do a lot of hard work and every word they present to client has to be backed by solid data. Also, aligning multiple stakeholders at a client, at senior levels, when you are not even a part of that org isn't an easy job at all.

Aligning multiple stakeholders is the biggest piece of project management.

Building in commerce space, b2b2c. Decided to build in this space, looking at my competencies and understanding the gaps in the market.

Please elaborate your question, didn't understand

How important is a marketing and communications role to a VC firm as i see most of the marketing people here have worked with the best startups and companies and are doing basic work like social media posts, seo, small scale mixers against a good pay.

Mid-Junior folks focus primarily on deal-scouting and screening as many companies possible. Returns in VC are build over a period of long time, and it is usually the partners who are most focused on that metric. XIRR above 20% is great, top quartile.

Thanks for the reply!

Haha, not yet :)