🧵 Can I build a company from scratch as an Outsider??
A question I often got starting was, “What do you know about VC coming from PE?”
We now have a team of 7 that never worked at a VC fund managing $174M.
Here’s how 👇🏽
Conversation
Replying to
Our team are outsiders to VC
and I worked in PE
@wallstreetpaperwas an influencer
an engineer
and were bankers
a journalist
The common thread, we never worked at a VC fund ever
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But we started HCP for outsiders to VC, POC and women founders.
These groups weren’t being served by VCs after DECADES of basically no funding.
So why would we create a firm to help outsiders by hiring insiders??
We wouldn’t
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When and I were roommates at we asked ourselves one fundamental question,
Should we recruit for a tier 1 VC fund and start HCP later or should we raise a fund now with no VC experience?
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We ultimately didn’t think working for a VC fund that didn’t invest in diverse founders would make us better at what we wanted to do
We would be better venture capitalist, but we weren’t starting HCP bc we loved VC
We were starting it to solve the funding gap for minorities
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The advantage to never working in VC is that we now do what we think is best, not what we have seen others do
likes to say, “we seek truth” and says “we rather be right than consistent”
This leads to curiosity and constant iteration
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I saw differences bw us and other VC funds immediately
We had 40-60pg memos compared to some with none
We took call notes on every call
We did dozens of references and background checks during diligence
We built large partnerships
We developed a massive intern program
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I didn’t know these were different since I never worked at a VC fund so I only knew on my networking calls
Other VCs would ask
“How do you have time to do long memos and what info is there?”
“How do you have so many interns, what do they even do?”
“Why the partnerships?”
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Coming from private equity, these were the things that we did, but to even greater extents. That was all we knew and the PE funds were managing billions and had been around longer so we looked to them as our guide vs other VCs
It was clear this was strange to VCs and LPs
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But we were looking to make HCP a global platform that would last several decades and only a few VCs had done that. We weren’t connected to any of those tho as none had Black Partners like many of the PE funds so we had no real in to the Sequoias of the world.
So PE it was.
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Some of the lessons I took from PE managers were
• Build out your systems early to scale
• Focus on talent, including interns
• Leverage others for references, teaches you more than reading research
• Do background checks and personal references
• Document everything
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There were things I had to learn as well though from PE
• Getting comfortable being uncomfortable
• Shortening my diligence process
• Focusing on the founder and market, not than traction
• Sharing my voice publicly
• Sourcing, not relying on bankers
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There will be advantages and disadvantages whether you are an insider or outsider.
You must acknowledge the disadvantages and adjust accordingly. While also doubling down on the advantages as that’s your superpower.
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Whether you are a fund manager or founder, there will be people with two views
1) Experience is valuable b/c you can see around the corners
2) Outsiders can see solutions that insiders can’t
Both are right, at different times
Do not try to convince the other group
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You have to convince yourself first and then share your conviction with others. That’s how you’ll go from outsider to insider.
Hope that you take the leap, we need you and your ideas.
Follow me at if you enjoyed this thread
Thanks for reading
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