The Outsider in the Room

Entering venture capital as an outsider.

Venture capital seems at first glance to be a club. You know someone who knows someone. You went to the right school. You worked at the right companies. Then, one day, you get to pitch what you want to do, and a group of mortals decides whether you get to have a million.

This image is discouraging for outsiders. How do you get in that room without the right network?

But what I've noticed is that venture capital is just a market. Risk-bearing capital seeks exposure. It seeks winners. If you convince it that you'll win, it wants to give you money. Regardless of your background.

This goes back to the DIP idea. Inclusive production doesn't begin in the product. It begins in the ecosystem. Who gets to be entrepreneurs? Who gets to have money? Who gets to take risks?

In many countries this is more limited than it appears. You need a certain kind of background. In the US it's much more open, not because it's altruistic, but because capital is hungry.

The question for inclusive economy is: how do we make the venture capital ecosystem inclusive? Not through good causes. By making it see that money can be made in areas that are now undervalued.

Most outsiders don't fail because they're not good enough. They fail because they don't know how to knock on the door. They say no to themselves next time before they ask.

This is design work. How do you make the process transparent? How do you remove the mystique? How do you say: you're not crazy, you belong here?

---

Source: Observations from venture capital ecosystem