Recently, Josh Kopelman of First Round Capital announced Brett Berson's promotion to Partner. For the last six years, Brett had been building the platform team at FRC. The firm scaled assistance to startups in a way that for outpaced the resources any investment team could provide as individuals.
I got to work with Brett for two years while I was investing at First Round, before I started Brooklyn Bridge Ventures.
Over that time, I watched him foster thriving online communities, creating engaging events, and making them better. His insatiable curiosity helped him learn not only from Josh, and First Round's partners like Howard Morgan--who is moving back to angel investing after a tremendously successful run as one of the most well respected venture capitalists--but from successful founders and startup professionals.
While most people trying to get into venture will tell you how much they know, their experience, or their instincts, Brett kept listening and learning. By figuring out the best ways to help founders, he learned valuable lessons alongside them--lessons he can now bring to a new generation of founders as their investor.
For everyone who has aspirations to venture capital, it's a lesson well earned by Brett's hard work. You don't need to start out with money, get a Harvard or Stanford MBA, or sell a company to become a VC. You need to not only want to help founders, but dedicate yourself to learning how to do that better everyday than you did the day before.
That's what I find missing in most people who want to break into venture. There's no respect for venture as a craft--as a profession whose skills you can hone and perfect.
Here's the thing--the skills aren't in the picking, they're in the helping.
Winners come in time, but access to opportunity comes when can add real value, and when you build a reputation for being the kind of investor a founder wants in their company.
After everything he has learned, I have no doubt Brett will be one of those investors founders want to work with.