Excellence, but louder
Nobody can stop you from being excellent.
I've been reading the book "So Good They Can't Ignore You" by Cal Newport. I like Newport's work, especially around focus, slowing down to produce high-quality work, and methodical accretion of valuable expertise.
However, especially after spending time this month with an incredible and diverse set of women and nonbinary fund managers, it's obvious that the idea of "so good they can't ignore you" doesn't translate to reality within the venture industry.
These fund managers are the epitome of excellence. Their talent is undeniable. And yet many of them are being ignored. Or, if not entirely ignored, ignored in comparison to most men in venture. (As measured by LP dollars raised.)
All Raise's 2023 annual report states that in the years since the organization was founded in 2018, women checkwriters in venture have gone from 9% to 17.4%. That's not nothing. It's still, of course, far from parity.
So where do we go from here?
Like many others, I've been thinking a lot lately about the concept of your circle of control and your circle of influence vs your circle of concern. What can you control and how can you use what you can control to positively influence those in your networks? So far, the best answer I can come up with is to focus on excellence.
Why? Because nobody can stop you from being excellent. Nobody can stop you from learning more about your industry, streamlining your standard operating procedures, refining your startup fundraising process, laser-focusing on metrics, becoming an LP, or deepening your relationships with likeminded folks in your networks. You can control or influence all of these things.
I believe that excellence has positive externalities. I don't believe that excellence = they can't ignore you. You can be quietly excellent in your home office and few will notice. (Guess how I know.)
But if you can be excellent a little bit louder, I believe you can make a difference for yourself and others.
So that's what I'm going to be focusing on heading into 2025, and I invite everyone to join me. How can we more deeply master our craft ... but do it a little bit more loudly? Can we share more, encourage more, and be out there a little bit more? (In ways that are energizing and don't drain our life force.)
Inspiration for 2025 and beyond
I was intrigued and inspired by my friend Julie Kucinski's predictions in her recent Business of Women newsletter (also a fine example of truly excellent work; subscribe here). These two really resonated:
“💡Prediction 1: The high-dollar rah-rah groups and female empowerment will give way to more nuts-and-bolts training on hard skills, tech expansion and results-driven relationships. Enough with the “YOU ARE ENOUGH” speeches (✨ OK i’m trying to manifest that one ✨)
💡Prediction 2: The Invisible Women voters who skewed Blue this week and in the last midterms will step up as angel investors and form angel networks. People keep talking about Millennials getting the Boomer wealth transfer, but wives outlive husbands. See also Gen Z female impact investors focused on women and climate.”
Relatedly, here are few things you'll see from me in 2025:
More practical, hard-skill resources for early-stage founders running a startup fundraising process
As an attorney for startups, a startup founder myself, and the co-founder of the Lunar Startups accelerator, I've worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs at the earliest stages.
In the coming year, I'll be sharing the latest version of a system I developed to help super early founders quickly prepare to attract capital, impress investors, and avoid avoidable mistakes.
This framework helps founders run an excellent startup fundraising process (or decide to opt out of fundraising altogether!)
Topics will include:
Choosing your funding pathway (investors vs loans vs both together)
Protecting your valuable intellectual property sooner rather than later
Understanding ownership and control in your business
How to impress pre-seed investors with your due diligence prep
Etiquette and strategy for successfully reaching out to potential investors
A peek behind the VC curtain for angel investors curious about becoming an LP
One of my favorite things to do is to dive into a subject area, learn absolutely everything I possibly can, and then share that knowledge with others. (My first career was as a newspaper reporter. This tracks.)
I raised capital for a venture-backed business as a Minnesota-based sports tech co-founder from 2017-2019. For the last three years, I've been living the life of a first-time venture fund manager alongside my incredible team at Tundra Ventures. And I've been collecting receipts from both sides of the table that I'm looking forward to sharing more widely.
I'll share on topics like:
What it's like becoming an LP vs being an angel investor, and how both can be great
How venture funds make money alongside LPs
What are all those legal docs you have to sign to become an LP and what are you actually agreeing to?
How LP and emerging manager incentives are aligned
The path toward more equality in power is paved with bricks of excellence. Let's keep shifting power together, in 2025 and beyond.