A year ago, we set out to add to our team. You may recall that we opened a search for an associate last summer.

We appreciated spending time with many candidates, as well as the many intros and referrals from our friends. Unfortunately, we didn’t find someone who was the right fit for us – and decided to take a short break from the search.

We’re beginning to restart the process of finding our third team member. And from our previous experience, we now have a little more insight as to who we are looking for.

In our original description, we listed several key skills and traits for our future teammate – including someone with a native understanding of the startup ecosystem and network effects; good product instincts and interpersonal skills; data-driven thinking; and ideally prior design or programming experience, work in an investment or Internet-related position and knowledge of crypto/blockchain and/or genomics/biosciences/healthcare.

These qualities are still important, but this time around we’re optimizing for four C’s:   

• Curiosity: This goes without saying, but we’re looking for hyper curiosity: someone who questions everything around them (i.e. what can be better?) and also has the imagination to picture what the world *could* be with technology.
• Competitiveness: As VCs, we often work on our own and have full autonomy of how we spend our time. Thus, it is important that our new teammate be self-motivated and disciplined. In fact, some of our favourite candidates were (semi-)professional athletes. We love meeting people who have shown that they can channel their passions into work that is meaningful and impactful to them.
• Compassion: VC is relationship-driven so being empathetic is the most important. As one small example of this, I wrote about how critical it is to be in tune with people and make connections beyond professional transactions.
• Conviction: In VC, it takes years to know whether we took the right investment decision. With that said, one has to be comfortable taking a position with limited information available today.

As you can see, we’re not looking for a specific background or educational pedigree. In fact, I came into VC with little experience beyond academia but had a love for tech.

 So in that spirit, we’re hoping to connect with under-the-radar individuals who *might* be interested in an analyst/associate role in this industry. In other words, we’re looking for raw superstar talent with no investing experience necessary. These individuals can be entrepreneurs, engineers, PMs, data scientists, designers, creatives, writers, students, etc. – as long as s/he has a passion for technology and is aligned with our core beliefs and values.

Right now, this is a two- to three-year role where our new team member will learn about the business of venture capital and get the opportunity to work with some really interesting startups. The primary responsibility will be to help manage the day-to-day activities of the fund, including:

• Identifying new and interesting entrepreneurs and companies that align with our investment thesis on network effects
• Performing market research and due diligence for potential investments
• Reporting for our investors, including writing quarterly updates and preparing LP advisory board meetings
• Working with existing portfolio companies, including helping out with hiring, financial modeling, and research
• Executing projects of your own direction that help Version One and/or our portfolio companies

If you are this person, or know someone who might be, please be in touch. We’d enjoy the opportunity to pitch him/her/you on the idea that investing might be a great fit!  

angela@versionone.vc 

Thank you!