> Venture capital used to draw the best of the business-school crowd, but today it’s being taken over by 30- and 40-year-old founders who have the credibility of having run a business.
From what I can tell senior partners are still predominately MBAs. Beyer, Doer, Boetha, Gurley, Khosla, etc
Ok, but "be a billionaire and start a VC firm" and "kick ass" aren't actionable pieces of advice for anyone except the half-dozen or so women he mentioned.
I appreciate the characterization of VC firms as clubs though. That makes sense.
If EP was so adamant about trying to 'bring KPCB along' and change it's 'boys club' culture -- which really rings with JC's point #2 --
-- why did she leave VC? She's 100% convinced she got passed over for promotion at KPCB for illegitimate reasons.
Thus she's convinced she has a lot to give in VC. And she has years of experience.
And there are other VC firms with a very inclusive environment for both genders.
Why on earth abandon a highly remunerative career path, if she's confident of her VC talents? Being CEO of Reddit isn't bad, but financially she'd be MUCH better off sticking with what she knows.
A note on Ann Winblad. It took her and John Hummer 18 months or so to get their fund started. They had one substantive hook -- they promised to be the first software-only VC firm. (Accel, already well established then, was just software-mainly.)
They also had a gimmick -- their visual. Ann is tiny, while John is a former NBA forward. If there isn't a full 1 1/2 foot difference in their heights, it's close to that. As Ann told the story then, it helped people remember them. :)
Ann, by the way, was a founder, while John had worked for another VC (Pitch Johnson) and elsewhere in finance (Victor Niederhoffer) after his hoops career ended.
From what I can tell senior partners are still predominately MBAs. Beyer, Doer, Boetha, Gurley, Khosla, etc