About the “how” in venture capital

Too Long; Didn't Read

My deep and articulate friend, Jerry Neumann, just penned a <a href="http://reactionwheel.net/2017/04/on-being-special-in-the-venture-business.html" target="_blank">thought-provoking piece</a> “On being special in the venture business.” Jerry and I have co-invested together on many occasions, both during my time as an angel investor as well as a <a href="https://hackernoon.com/tagged/vc" target="_blank">VC</a>. And as fortune would have it, we were both original investors in the <a href="https://hackernoon.com/tagged/startup" target="_blank">startup</a> that became the 2016 IPO <a href="http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/ttd" target="_blank">The Trade Desk</a>. I have witnessed his investment skill and constant introspection first-hand, so I was not surprised that he raised an issue most venture investors I know ponder daily. For my purposes “venture investing” refers to investing in pre-product/market fit stage companies, where data is sparse and the distribution of potential outcomes is extreme. A neat summary of Jerry’s discussion is captured by the following paragraph: