lessons learned as a venture capitalist

There is nothing inspiring about thinking small

Venture Capital is the Olympics of businesses, only the best entrepreneurs with the best ideas get

in, we all seek to win, yet failure is an option and circumstances beyond our control have a large

impact on our outcomes. Even so, hundreds of billions of dollars are invested in high-risk high-

returns annually. The thrill of participating in the Venture Capital market is the dream of most

entrepreneurs. The amount of energy generated by these businesses is amazing.

Ups and downs mark the journey for the manager of a Venture Capital Fund, lessons learned by

making hard decisions, envisioning trends, supporting strong minded individuals and negotiating making hard decisions, envisioning trends, supporting strong minded individuals and negotiating

at large and small scale are tested and rested 24/7. My years as the founder and CEO of Capital

Semilla, Chile’s First Private Seed Capital Fund changed the way I viewed the business world.

If you want to go into business chances are you will face challenges that resemble the ones faced

by the VC manager. Remember, the biggest mistake you make running your own business is

thinking like the CEO –or any employee for that matter. If you running the risks, you should be

rewarded as an owner, via dividends and share value.

Even if you don’t want to build the next google, these reflexions will help you immensely when

shaping your business model. So you work smart and reap the benefits.

© Alicia Castillo Holley. www.wealthing.com

Take Away Points

Keep in mind these ten lessons to keep you on track, thrilled and empowered

1. Leverage on your passions, not your skills

2. Don’t go solo

3. Think big, bigger than your dreams

4. Create wealth

5. Innovate5. Innovate

6. Build knowledge

7. Incorporate talent

8. Accept failure

9. Follow through

10. Indulge yourself


1. Leverage on your passions, not your skills

Forget what you’ve been told all your life. If you are going to build this up, you need to be

passionate about it. When you are passionate about your business, your clients and your area, you

welcome challenges, disagreements and strengthen your INTERNAL LOCUS OF CONTROL.

Your skills are defined by someone else, based actually on their weaknesses. When you leverage

on your skills your LOCUS OF CONTROL IS EXTERNAL, it depends on what other’s think of you. It on your skills your LOCUS OF CONTROL IS EXTERNAL, it depends on what other’s think of you. It

is never too late to start leveraging on your PASSION, Mary Kay, Ray Kroc (Mc Donalds), and even

Muhammad Yunus (Grameen Banks) didn’t start young… they switch over what they were

passionate about. Bill Gates and Mother Theresa didn’t lose track of their passion.

Whatever it is you are doing your intention and your passion need to be aligned.

When you are passionate about what you do, you have the inner energy to get through any

barrier, setbacks are only temporary, you excel at what you do and you will always keep growing.


2. Don’t go solo

We win more collaborating than controlling.

When you tend to do it all by yourself, you can’t involve others that will help you and will also

benefit from the interaction. If you want to keep it all to yourself, you will limit your boundaries,

your dreams, and your outcomes.

Shift the idea of wanting to win all to wanting for all to win.

Not only you need other people, they also need you. We only have one world and we are all

connected. Sooner or later you will need external contribution, it is better to bring them on board

early on. Learn to add value and to always think in value, that way you will also expect value.

Getting something for nothing is never a good deal. You will soon realize that you can’t fulfil your

dreams alone. Leverage on the power of collaboration and synergy to achieve the impossible, and

you will end up with the stars.


3. Think big, bigger than your dreams

Success is not potential, it is endless growth. Life is ruled so when we cease to grow we begin to

die. Set goals high enough so you need to stretch yourself to achieve them, you will gain a sense of

fun and empowerment.

Goals easy to reach don’t bring you joy, it is the excitement of not being sure that you will get

there what will drive you to become the best of you only to realize that there is more best of you there what will drive you to become the best of you only to realize that there is more best of you

to come. Don’t think in potential but on building blocks and leveraging points.

Successful entrepreneurs don’t have a clear path of HOW they will do things, they evaluate each

milestone and recreate strategies, acknowledge mistakes and success factors and continue

growing.

Keep the dreams high, work on your goals for the present only after you’ve spent sometime

thinking about the impossible. Challenge yourself and your team to increase your conservative

figures 10 times. That will change your decisions.

Thinking big is not more of thinking small, it is different.


4. Create wealth

Income and revenues can be a trap if you can’t identify the new wealth you bring to the world.

The biggest problem wealth creation programs have is their individuality. We need more wealth,

for everybody not just you, or me. Fire yourself from being an employee of your company and

treat your work as a strategist, more than a manager. Avoid being self employed, find someone to

replace you, create jobs for others and shareholder value for you, consider your impact to your

clients, community, suppliers and investors. Your biggest value is on organizing resources to create clients, community, suppliers and investors. Your biggest value is on organizing resources to create

or capture opportunities.

Don’t undervalue yourself or your work. You don’t do the world a favour by underpricing, nobody

wins. Offer services or products that will make you proud and expect to receive a value for your

hard work. Demand the best and reward the best accordingly. Creating wealth is a better

proposition than distributing wealth. Pay yourself 10 times more for your time working in your

business, and work few hours per week, take breaks to explore, learn and make mistakes. Think

about who will buy your business when you are no longer the owner.

Remember: Never underpay anybody (you included), that destroys wealth.


5. Innovate

Create something you are proud of that is distinctively yours. Set your imprint, your own

authentic gift, and put it to the use and service the others. Grow by introducing unpredictable

services and products, even at the expense of cannibalizing your other offers, that keeps you

ahead of the curve.

Innovation is not creativity. Creativity is a form of self-expression and is internally focused: it Innovation is not creativity. Creativity is a form of self-expression and is internally focused: it

makes you happy. Innovation is a form of usefulness: it makes others happy. Use your gifts to bring

value to the world, you included.

Focus on what your client couldn’t even dream. Ford once said: “If I had asked people what they

wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Bring other’s dreams on board, clients, employees,

associates.

Force yourself to reinvent. Contentment is not a good companion.


6. Build knowledge

Learn, study, apply. Introduce smart systems where the knowledge being created adds value to the

company. Ask customers, employees, and suppliers how you can improve your business. Then

share that amongst your people to use their knowledge to select what would be most useful.

Don’t keep what you know in your head, it blocks your capacity to be curious and to grow. It also

prevents others from helping and participating in your wealth creation. Every time you talk to prevents others from helping and participating in your wealth creation. Every time you talk to

someone take the time to listen. You already know what you are going to talk about, but you can

only learn when you are listening to others.

Build a business system that captures what you and others know and build it in a way that is self

adjusting. Stop being right and start being useful.

If your intuition – your subconscious knowledge – is not available to others you are working as an

employee. You are important, yet useless. Your business needs to be nurtured to grow

independently.


7. Incorporate Talent

Businesses don’t make decisions, people do.

Chances are that even if you work hard and smart, there will always be someone a click away with

a piece of information that can make a huge difference in your success. Every successful

entrepreneur will tell you that a key to their success was to hire people who were smarter. That

combination of wisdom and humbleness allows smarter people to participate in your business, combination of wisdom and humbleness allows smarter people to participate in your business,

whether they are employees, consultants or friends. Create a best idea contest and reward those

who are helping you with your business.

A golden rule is to use empowerment. Empowerment is a combination of responsibility and

rewards. Remember that wealth is a flow, it has to come in and it has to go out. It does as you will

use your wealth to spend or invest.

Always make sure that responsibility and rewards are aligned.


8. Accept Failure

Failure is an option. Failure and Success are not opposites; they are different outcomes of taking

action. Building knowledge includes knowing what not to do. If you don’t accept failure as an

option you will take no risks and will become a carbon copy of yourself. Without accepting failure,

your business will be a mediocre and replicable option of what could have been. Measuring risks

is part of accepting that failure is possible.

Planning, learning and incorporating talent reduce the risk of failure but when you are creating

something novel or unusual, you are facing uncertainty. If you and your team is not capable of

accepting failure you will not be able to question what you are doing and improve your business.

You don’t have to be right to have a great business, you need to be flexible and active.

Remember that the opposite of success is not failure, it is inaction.


9. Follow Through

Success is one step away, we just don’t know which step. This is the single most important reason

to keep on track.

When we were evaluating entrepreneurs, we wanted those who had the capacity to ‘make it

happen’. There will be many reasons and obstacles along the way. Yes, sometimes you need to sit

down and smell the roses, but not to go back but to move forward. Yes, sometimes you need to down and smell the roses, but not to go back but to move forward. Yes, sometimes you need to

change paths and accept that failure is an option and cancel your dream, but think about it. Are

you really ready to cancel your dream?

In Venture Capital, we fear more the living dead deals than the failures; living dead deals don’t

move anywhere. If you need to take a break, do so, only to get up and continue, because you

know that success is a step away.

Say what you are going to do and do it. It builds trust.


10. Indulge Yourself

Last but not least, take time off and indulge yourself.

I spent weeks working without a taking a day out. I wasn’t stressed, I was loving it, and one day, I

realized I simply had to pause. Looking back I realized I had not taken a day off in over a year. It

was a Saturday and I decided not to go the office on Sunday. The world was not going anywhere if

I took the day of. I created a pattern on Sundays for me, rising early in the morning to indulge I took the day of. I created a pattern on Sundays for me, rising early in the morning to indulge

myself in a fantastic cup of coffee with home made bread and a nice hour of reading. Some people

take a walk, talk, drink, go to the beach, spa, or to a mountain.

Whatever it is you enjoy doing that is NOT related to your work, find time to do it. If you are as

passionate as your work as most Venture Capital backed entrepreneurs, put it in your calendar.

It is hard to take a break when you are living a dream. Give yourself a reward for living and

include those you love in your calendar. Simple as that.


lessons learned as a venture capitalist

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