Read more about how we’re thinking and where we’re investing here.

The consumer subscription business model is certainly not a new concept. And as we’ve been investing in more B2C companies recently, we’re reminded just how popular this strategy to monetization continues to be.

Last week, I shared that I am looking for opportunities in femtech.

I recently froze my eggs. I was actually surprised by how much energy, effort and time was involved. It’s not as straightforward as taking a “fertility test” today and then deciding to freeze your eggs tomorrow. The entire process demands months of preparation – from getting your body to optimal health to coordinating with care providers, pharmacies, etc. I’d like to do an AMA on Twitter sometime on what the whole process was like for anyone who is curious.

I know many people that are dyslexic: entrepreneurs, close friends, family members. And almost all of them have suffered from the general perception that dyslexia is a learning disability. Most of them had a terrible time with a school system that generally doesn’t recognize that dyslexic individuals learn differently – which usually results in them struggling with reading and writing, and losing a lot of self-confidence in the process.

Nearly two years ago, I published a post exploring four key opportunities in crypto.

Boom is one of the most ambitious start-ups I know – their mission is to develop supersonic planes and make the world more accessible. As you can imagine, you need incredibly talented people to achieve this goal. So when Blake Scholl, Boom’s founder and CEO, recently shared insights into the company’s hiring playbook in an investor update, I asked him for permission to publish his email on our blog – “the Boom Way of hiring” is a great blue print for start-ups to take their recruiting processes to the next level. Enjoy!

We are very excited to announce our participation in Nexus, an Ethereum-based insurance mutual.

The WeWork drama of the past weeks is a great reminder of how perceptions of a start-up opportunity can change very dramatically in a short period of time. What was one of the highest flying start-ups with a private market valuation of $47B was brought down to Earth when trying to IPO. (Important to note that building a $10B – $15B start-up, the rumored valuation if the company went public today, is still an incredible achievement – even if it’s only about a third of the market cap a few months ago).

Before we head into the last quarter of the year, let’s take a few minutes to highlight some notable announcements made over the summer in the V1 portfolio.

A few weeks ago I shared my reflections on my first year as a GP. Along with all the well wishes (thank you!!), many asked what Version One is investing in these days. Our portfolio companies aren’t as quick to publicize fundraising rounds like they used to and as such, we’re not making as many public announcements about our activity.

Our portfolio company Dapper Labs, the creators of CryptoKitties and the Dapper Wallet, today announced Flow, a new blockchain for entertainment applications.

The first week of September is my VC anniversary. This milestone is always a great forcing function to reflect on the past year, my contributions to the startup community, as well as my overall goals.

The venture capital market has become very noisy over the past few years, especially on the early-stage side. Not a day goes by that a new fund isn’t being announced. Entrepreneurs have an increasing amount of financing options – that’s good news, but it also makes it harder to choose the right partners for your journey.

Inspired by Bill Campbell’s influence and having seen firsthand how our founders and CEOs have grown as a result of having an executive coach, I recently put out a call on Twitter for recommendations for coaches.

It was 20 years ago next month that we started JustBooks, creating a marketplace that connected buyers and sellers of used, rare, and out-of-print books. We initially launched in Germany before expanding into the UK and France, and then sold the company to our North American competitor AbeBooks in 2001.

Last week I blogged about the return multiples for our Fund I and how they perfectly illustrate just how much the power law drives VC return.

We raised our first fund in summer 2012. It was a $15m early-stage fund that we invested in 20 portfolio companies over the course of two and a half years. We’re now seven years in and the portfolio is maturing.

<span style="font-weight: 400;">A year ago, we set out to add to our team. You may recall that we opened a</span> <a href="https://www.versionone.vc/hiring-associate/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">search for an associate</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> last summer.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">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.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">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.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">In our </span><a href="https://www.versionone.vc/hiring-associate/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">original description</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, 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.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">These qualities are still important, but this time around we’re optimizing for four C’s:  </span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><b>Curiosity:</b><span style="font-weight: 400;"> This goes without saying, but we’re looking for </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">hyper</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> 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.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><b>Competitiveness:</b><span style="font-weight: 400;"> 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.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><b>Compassion:</b><span style="font-weight: 400;"> 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 </span><a href="https://www.versionone.vc/checking-in/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">be in tune with people and make connections beyond professional transactions</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><b>Conviction:</b><span style="font-weight: 400;"> 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.</span></li> </ul> <span style="font-weight: 400;">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.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">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 </span><a href="https://www.versionone.vc/philosophy/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">core beliefs</span></a> and values<span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">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:</span> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Identifying new and interesting entrepreneurs and companies that align with our investment thesis on network effects</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Performing market research and due diligence for potential investments</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Reporting for our investors, including writing quarterly updates and preparing LP advisory board meetings</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Working with existing portfolio companies, including helping out with hiring, financial modeling, and research</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Executing projects of your own direction that help Version One and/or our portfolio companies</span></li> </ul> <span style="font-weight: 400;">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!  </span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">angela@versionone.vc </span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Thank you!</span> &nbsp;

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

A question I have been pondering for some time now, especially since a lot of our portfolio companies are now distributed organizations…