Kate Simpson

I learned a lot about allocating capital, taking kind of that 30,000-foot view of the world.

But I did work primarily on a team that was managing the endowment's private investment.

A couple of things stuck with me throughout my career that I initially learned there.

One was the importance of asking good questions, both of the managers we met and, frankly, with my own mentor for learning purposes.

This is a job that requires continuous learning.

I also learned the importance of professional relationships and network, right?

They build over time, they build off of each other and last a long time.

It's really hard to place a value on that in the beginning, but it absolutely becomes an asset over time.

After the endowment, I worked for two different fund of funds.

And I think it was at those firms that I really learned what a good institutional due diligence process looks like, particularly the art of conducting reference calls.

And I learned, importantly, how important and hard it can be to raise capital before you even go on to invest that capital.

I'm going to use the word that's probably one of the...

overused words in the industry and that is differentiation, but it really does come down to figuring out

Why, in the land of venture, why a particular founder wants to partner with a venture investor?

Well, founders have a lot of choice in today's market.

There's no shortage of capital.

There's no shortage of venture capitalists.

And founders are very, very savvy, probably much more savvy today than they were a couple of decades ago.

So they have a lot of choice.

So it's incumbent upon the VC to decide.