Passing It On
Yesterday evening as I was leaving the office, I stopped in our conference room where Andrew was walking Christina though a liquidation model. Andrew was drawing a graph of proceeds by class of stock on the whiteboard. I wish I had pulled out my phone and snapped a photo.
Andrew has been with us for almost four years and this is his last week. I wrote about his departure on the USV blog back in March. I remember teaching him about liquidation models and how to construct them early on in his tenure with us.
Now Andrew is the teacher and Christina is the pupil. A few years from now Christina will be the teacher and someone else (maybe you) will be the pupil.
Venture capital is best learned in an apprenticeship model. That's how I learned it and I am eternally grateful to Milton and Bliss who taught me well.
We have a two year and out model for junior investment professionals at USV. Charlie, Andrew, Eric, and now Christina have gone through it. Charlie and Andrew are active in the venture business with firms we admire and work with regularly. And Eric is now with Foursquare, helping them work with partners who want to be on the foursquare platform. We are incredibly proud of the people who have come through our firm and moved on to bigger and better things.
Christina will be the first person many of you meet when you contact USV for the next couple years. She introduced herself on the USV blog yesterday. Give it a read and you'll see why we hired her.
It's not easy going through an exhaustive hiring process every couple years. We considered about 350 people for Christina's position, interviewed over 50 and met with close to 20. Many think our hiring process is unduly taxing on us and wonder why we would choose to do it every two years when we have hired so many amazing people. To me the answer is easy, it turns our firm into a school of sorts. A place where talented young people can come and learn the venture business for a couple years and then go off and be an entrepreneur or VC or something else. We are slowly but surely sowing the seeds of the next generation of leaders of the startup ecosystem.
That's what I saw in our conference room yesterday evening and it was a proud moment for me.
Comments (Archived):
Great story and thanks for sharing the hiring process from start to finish.Congratulations to Christina.
The best indicator that shows that USV is a great place to work is that Andrew is still there, helping in the process, almost three months after he told you that he was leaving. Either he said really early because he wanted to help or he’s waited a lot because he wanted to help. Both things are great.
it is both but it is mainly because that is how he is.
True! I should have also said that he must be a great guy!
When does his wife’s residency start, August?
I believe she has already started
OK, then he’s been a trooper, sticking around in NY to help with the transition while she’s up in Boston.________________________________
I just want to see things transition smoothly. The guys here at USV are great and I wouldn’t want to let the balls in the air drop around here.Spark’s been great in the process too. They have been willing to wait for many weeks a bit understaffed so that I could wrap things up here at USV nicely. I appreciate their flexibility.
that’s why school is for losers, the real way to learn is through self-education and apprenticeship. thankfully, the local, state, and federal govt in the US and many other parts of the world will find themselves increasingly unable to fund their operations (gotta pay for war instead, even though 9/11 was an inside job), at which point the indoctrination system known as public education will collapse and we can get on with apprenticeships and real forms of education.
She’s learning by apprenticeship, but she’s also studied at Stanford. I think that, while it’s true that many schools have a broken teaching model, there will always be a place for school learning. Some things can be teached there in a more efficient way. Also, some people lack the discipline to self-educate themselves out of a school.
the public indoctrination system was not always in place. it is a creation of the 20th century. everything that has a beginning, has an end.
I was thinking in schools in general. Regarding American public schools, I don’t know them because I don’t live there, so I can’t have an oppinion.
american schools definitely suck. just look around, americans for the most part know nothing about their country or anyone else’s. they don’t even know their president’s name. literally, obama’s real name is barry soetoro. this situation exists because of the failure of the education and media systems. and of course willful ignorance that allows such systems to prosper.education is probably better in other countries, but wherever government controls education, you will get an education system that has a very distorted view of history, one that conveniently leaves government wrongdoing out of the picture.
“that’s why school is for losers”Notice Fred didn’t hire some autodidact who eschewed traditional schools, but a woman with two degrees from one of the most prestigious schools in the world (Stanford). Elite, highly-selective schools are for winners, who get to rub elbows with other winners, and whose degrees signal to future employers that they are winners.It’s the expensive, non-prestigious, non-elite, non-selective schools that are for suckers: e.g., the folks who spend 3 years and over $100k to get a law degree from a third tier school and graduate with no prospects.
i disagree, the elite schools give you connections to other spoiled brats who are probably not as smart as they think they are. to clarify i do not mean to diss christina, i’m suspect she’s a wonderful person and that USV has made an excellent choice. however i suspect her talents exist in spite of, not because of, the time she spent at overpriced “educational” institutions — institutions where simple truths (i.e. 9/11 truth, federal reserve system, kookology in general) are sure to be forbidden.i went to the stern school of business at NYU, which many folks categorize as elite/semi-elite. it connected me to some rich people which in turn gave me some opportunities, but nowadays even that is obsolete. just hang out on blogs and make connections that way. educate yourself and get an apprenticeship so that you can make meaningful comments that prove your worth. the entire experience will be much more educational and affordable than a college degree from some elitist institution too busy bragging about how prestigious they are while remaining 100% committed to not educating their students on anything that’s actually important (i.e. how money is created, what the president’s name is, who’s responsible for 9/11, why gold is real money, why kookology is where it’s at, etc).
“just hang out on blogs and make connections that way. educate yourself and get an apprenticeship so that you can make meaningful comments that prove your worth”How’s that working out for you so far? Not to put too fine a point on this, but Ms. Stanford x2 is collecting a paycheck from Fred’s company now, while your bouncer position on AVC.com is (as far as I know) an unpaid one.
i am a unique situation as i get penalized for telling the truth and being myself, even though my behavior is commendable, not reprehensible. alas, truth is treason in the empire of lies. i am happy to pay the price though as to do otherwise would be a mark of great cowardice, immaturity, and dishonor — and i would find it far too embarrassing to behave in such a manner.with regards to your point, though, fred has replied to emails i’ve sent him and has even taken time to meet me. this hasn’t helped me concretely yet (see the aforementioned point), but i could easily see it helping in the future in a myriad of ways that are likely to be unpredictable. nyu had zero impact in making this happen. writing songs about jdawg and 9/11 truth on the other hand did.in any event using fred to make your point is a poor argument, as USV has multiple high school drop outs as CEOs of their portfolio companies. and of course, disputing the ability of social media to make meaningful connections is humorous, especially on this blog.lastly, the bouncer position is unpaid only if one fails to take advantage of the attention it provides. i’m sure many people would pay for links from fred in the body of his blog post. in fact he’s probably gotten spam mails making him offers for such. and of course, once fredbucks and the fredland economy come into play, i think you will find that status in online communities is not just a silly game.
Totally agree. “Universities Education” is mostly attending x% of the classes (x can be very low), read the textbooks and take the tests.Most of the material is not covered in class, and people learn it by themselves. It’s textbooks and tests. Amazon.com can easily provide both.Off course, there are some remarkable classes, and some really great teachers, who really add something to the textbook, but they are few.
Kids still the bouncer. Its not a two year and out gif
OK. So he’s got that going for him, which is nice. ________________________________
I call Kid the USV archive.
Kid gets Fred’s love. Can you really put a price on Fred’s love?
you should put a cap though
Just to settle this beef as the kid calls em, schooling has very little weight in our hiring process. But we do value intellect. Two of our four hires went to stanford which I agree is the epitome of elite. But two did not. All four of them were super smart
I have a healthy respect for the big name schools. Gates, Zuck dropped out of Harvard, Ellison dropped out of U of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and so on. Even those drop outs have been real good about hiring people who went to those schools. And Gates watches MIT videos on YouTube today for “refreshers.”But big name school, the brand name only, is not what does it. People do something to get there, do something while there, and hopefully do bigger things once out.
Of course you value intellect. Which is why I suggested you use a Wonderlic test next time to winnow your applicants and make your hiring process easier.
I’ll buy into the fact that the final decision had nothing to do with the school that Christina went to. But I am interested in the distribution of schools of the 350 candidates your interviewed. What % of the 350 were from top 10 programs? 🙂
It is amazing to me how you can drag 9/11 into everything, even this.
lol, it’s amazing to me that you don’t see how 9/11 is connected to everything. it is the big picture, the backdrop of contemporary “reality.”i’m sure many folks will interpret this as fearmongering, but the truth is that the US is more unsafe than ever. you have really upset people in iraq and afghanistan, and thus legitimate threats emerging from there. there is still sabre-rattling going on with iran — iran is much stronger than all the weaker countries the US picks on and if the US picks a fight iran, it is going to get very ugly very quickly and could easily turn into WW III. this won’t just be some war you get you to watch from the comfort of your home on a flat screen television, it is going to be domestic too. according to conventional kookology, the same discipline that correctly forecasted the allegedly unforeseeable economic collapse and the rise of gold, the government response will be to declare national emergency and temporarily suspend the constitution (it will be marketed as temporary, just like the patriot act was supposed to be temporary…..in reality it will be permanent) and move to a completely alternate chain of command, military rule, that has been in development since FEMA was created (during carter or reagan’s administration, somehwere around then…FEMA is of course unconstitutional, but that is commonplace these days). the john warner defense authorization act, passed in 2007, was a major step in setting this up as it allows for the military to be used in domestic law enforcement. all the pieces are in place, all they need is the event to set it off.alas the laws of karma are inescapable and as such this massive moral crime will be reflected economically and politically. people will then be wishing for a better world, wondering how things got to be so bad when there are clearly so many bright, well-intentioned people in our world. then it may dawn on folks that my behavior is rational and responsible, and ignorance is what really caused this entire mess.but i always enjoy beefing with you paramendra and look forward to continuing to have many more enjoyable and educational beefs with you here in fredland. our beefs provide a great vehicle for me to deliver the truth that sets us free, which is of course my entire reason for being.
I disagree with your version of the 9/11 truth, and let’s just put that to rest. I don’t expect to convince you. But when you put on the same goggles and look at some other situations and events and issues, you come up with interesting perspectives, which I enjoy and find informative.
it is not “my version” of 9/11 truth. i simply believe what countless scientists, government officials, and eyewitnesses believe. i follow the evidence. you do not, as your view of 9/11 requires you to be ignorant of how blatantly obvious the truth of the matter is. i know you are a smart person, spend 15 minutes researching the collapse of building 7 and you will see how obvious the matter is.most importantly, the consequences of 9/11 are far from complete, which is why i always ruin everyone’s day by bringing the matter up. as the economy deteriorates and as war becomes much more than something you simply watch on television, you will find that the information i have presented is essential to solving the problem. most entrepreneurs and investors think they are better off ignoring the truth — that is, of course, why i call them youngsters. in any event, when you are ready to embrace the truth that sets you free, we will be here, eager to welcome you.
Dave, to be totally honest, I’m with the Kid here.It’s at the point where it isn’t just me who is saying this, it’s my ex-professors in college as well.One of my ex-resident heads teaches one of the major core reading/writing courses. While I was in school there was a major switchover to the common app (away from what was called the uncommon application) While it increased yield and increased the amount of students with amazing SATS and GPAs he’s doubling the amount of work he has to do now because very few are prepared to write an argument down.Further- another huge chunk are trying to game the economics degree to go into a “banking” or “consulting” job because it is the “respectable” thing to do- to the point where people are lying on applications about prospective majors and then switching on arrival.Lastly, graduating now from one of those schools: Every interview I go on people ask about what I do here and the very first job I held. No one asks about my college life.
Shana,If you and the Kid didn’t quite get my point, I must have made it poorly. Let me clarify. I wasn’t arguing that any magic happens in college classrooms; on the contrary, I have been blogging for a couple years now that higher education is a waste of time for many students, and it’s debt-fueled bubble. But, there are still a relative handful of schools where you get your money’s worth (in terms of signaling value, connections, and future prospects). Stanford is one of them.________________________________
I know- and I am saying that coming from one of those schools (Tier 1 Top10) the signaling value is still really muted and will continue to be mutedas we move more closely to a metricized society.We’ve destroyed the value of the degrees themselves by moving away from aclassically oriented education that many of these schools originallyproposed.It should scare you dearly that I know a couple of economics students fromeither the top of the 4th top economics undergraduate program in the countrythat can’t apply correlation to causation to SSRNI works that they read. Itshould scare you dearly that I’m not a math not economics major: And I’veexplained elements of VAR to someone who is because I was bored. (Friend,she was preparing a lecture on the subject. I should really learn the deepmath behind it- one of the reasons I’m learning to program)Grades have gotten to matter so much that we’re graduating students whoperform to the grade flawlessly at the top tier of schools- when you askthem why and how they did it they are totally lost.That’s 10 years from now.(and I should have done economics, I just hate freshwater with apassion…booo)
I’d describe my apprenticeship education from the partners at USV as completely dependent on my traditional education. Much of the training (particularly the engineering and math courses — through some English too) was essential to my learning and execution at USV.I’m not trying to be a cheerleader for traditional education… I think alternatives (like earlier apprenticeships… internships… homeschooling) and interesting and often undervalued. But, I’m very grateful for the traditional education I was given because I wouldn’t be where I am today without it.
Looking at other industries, Apprenticeship is the key to the industry learning, evolving and growing. What you are doing with these positions is critical and it is tremendous. Not only are you passing it on, but you are creating USV alumni that will speak very highly of you and further solidify your company as a leader. We should all apply this into our hiring plans regardless of the type or stage our company is in.Thank you for the post.
Christina has an impressive background. I assume that part of the reason you hired her is that her two Stanford degrees (including one in engineering) signal that she is extremely intelligent. That suggests a way you could make your hiring process a lot less time consuming (for you) next time: have applicants take a 10 minute Wonderlic test online and just interview the ones who score above a certain level.
Isn’t that the same test new NFL QB’s have to take? If I recall correctly the QBs who have scored the worst Terry Bradshaw, Donovan McNabb etc.. tend to be much better at their job then the QBs who score highly. i.e. that former backup at Cincinatti who went to Buffalo (I think).
Scott,Wonderlic does create the test the NFL uses, but they also create other versions for other organizations.If poor performers on the Wonderlic “tend to be much better” then the league would have tossed the test years ago, don’t you think? Isn’t it more likely you are recalling a few exceptions, rather than general tendencies? As for the two QBs you mentioned, Bradshaw is before my time, though he doesn’t come across like a rocket scientist on TV (how much of that is a deliberate persona of his at this point, I don’t know). McNabb is a good quarterback — he’s caused his share of grief for us Giants fans over the years — but has never won a Superbowl. And in the one Superbowl he in which he played, there was some awful clock management on the part of the Eagles in the last few minutes of the game. I don’t know how much of that was on McNabb, and how much was on Reed. Eli Manning, on the other hand, who had a high Wonderlic score, has a Superbowl win under his belt. But these are just isolated data points. I would bet that, on average, high Wonderlic scorers outperform low scorers, and that this is why the league uses the test. ________________________________
They are isolated data points that’s for sure. Realized I had heard this from one of Malcolm Gladwell’s books.Here’s a post I found about the relationship.http://smartfootball.blogsp…
Did you read it in the “glib, poorly reasoned and thoroughly unconvincing” Gladwell book?
Wow. That’s quite the harsh review.Granted Gladwell’s methodologies aren’t exactly water tight but he gets some good points across. Explaining that Bill Gates just happened to be one of the only people in the world with access to a decent computer with time sharing – allowing him to obtain 10,000 hours of programming experience before he left high school – or that the Beatles would play 9 hour daily sets while they were in Hamburg isn’t groundbreaking but it still makes for entertaining reading and anecdotes.In my opinion that review is overly harsh and I don’t understand what the critic was expecting from Gladwell’s writing in order for it to under deliver by so much.
Scott,Your profile says you work in nuclear engineering. That suggests to me that you are too smart to be such a credulous reader of Malcolm Gladwell. You don’t think the Beatles had contemporaries who spent a similar amount of time playing live? You don’t think Bill Gates had some other factors working in his favor?________________________________
Of course they did. Gladwell tends to point out these factors as well.However this is all besides the point. Would I cite Gladwell’s work in a paper without other data points? No. Would I use his opinions gathered from anecdotes – or would I EVER use anecdotes to be the basis for a decision? Hell no.I think I am missing something here. I am under the opinion that Gladwell wrote some entertaining books based on some interesting theories. I have not heard anyone cite his theories as fact nor have I heard that he himself has evangelized his theories to communities and preached that his ideas should hold sway over major decisions. If this is the case then I concede that he should be judged harshly. However, I see his work as an entertaining, light read which made me think. It gave me new perspectives on nature vs. nurture, precociousness vs. experience and the possibility that there is no such thing as innate talent. All of these topics have been argued for years and I am still undecided on all of them because I would like to learn more.
Did it have to be a liquidation model? Couldn’t you have made it an IPO model just to add poignancy?
I think it was a waterfall.
It was sortof a waterfall. It was a graph where the Y axis was proceeds to various classes of stock, the X axis was exit price, and I was showing how convertible pfd and participating pfd differ as the exit price changes. My hand drawn graph was a mess, but it got the point across.
Thanks for the explanation. You get some funny outcomes and indifference points with participating and convertible preferred securities. It’s always strange when you are indifference between a $100M and a $130M exit for example.
Andrew’s too modest. His graph was great.
first like. good luck.
An ipo model is pretty basic. Not much teaching required there
Great story, and great to see people passing things on.Congrats to Christina – it was great to meet her (at the Meetup and NYTM last night), and I’m sure she’ll do a fabulous job for you, Fred.
Thanks, Nick. Great to run into you last night as well – hopefully it’ll happen again soon.
Speaking of Liquiation Models, why not utilize an online app that can perform models for many forms of exits, including liquidation, merger, and ipo. All can be done in a fraction of the time it takes any spreadsheet. Being online, means getting a handle on version control, and of course being able to access it when and where you need it. If you have 5 minutes, you should give it a look. http://www.youtube.com/watc…
I’d be happy to give it a spin, since I know what I need it to do (or not do), but I think it’s unlikely an early stage VC would pay for this. Most VCs I know don’t even pay for VentureSource anymore.
Thanks for this post. I wish entrepeneur could experiment the same knowledge sharing within a team, but unfortunately the CEO is almost always alone, or at least he can’t explain everything to other CEOs or peers as a lot of information are confidential and that’s difficult, especially for a young entrepreneur/CEO. What’s your thoughts on this, the absence of an “industry” of CEOs/entrepreneur ?
CEOs need mentors and coaches
Congrats to Christina! I really admire the fact that you all are giving young people this opportunity and experience to learn from the best. Not many other people, in any industry, are as passionate about sharing and teaching as you all seem to be.
What great feedback for your firm to know that you aren’t just building companies but you are building people too.
Congrats to everyone. Can’t wait for the unveil of the GM.
Viral patterns within VC investing. The groovy part about what you’re seeing is that if the strategies and concepts Milton and Bliss passed on to you survive “mutations” with each new investor generation they’ll eventually be part of the entire industry.That moment of pride is what many founders also look for, when a business they help breath life into goes from a pattern in their imagination, into a self sustaining engine that converts ideas, information, and man hours into revenue. From my limited vantage point the miracle is in creating jobs that people absolutely love, from which the business and it’s customers profit.
“creating jobs people absolutely love”what a great phrase mark – that’s a great way to think about company building
I liked it too, enough to spin it into a short post on memes at the airport yesterday.
I met Christina at the AVC meetup – she’s a sweetie. Smart head on her shoulders too. I’m sure she’ll end up being a great new team member.
Fred — this is an excellent illustration of one of the reasons I hang out here. I’m hearing the words in my mind… “not your grandfather’s VC” Very impressed with Christina and eager to “meet” the new GM…confident that this hire will make just as much sense. So many of us care about these hires not only because we care about your firm but also because what is good for USV is good for a much larger community. I believe you truly are helping to shape the future and these hires are just a small part of that.Now, for the question of where talented “old” people go to learn the VC business. Well, maybe…right here at AVC…for starters…
Fred,This is an awesome example of good leadership that is bred throughout the organization. I think that in today’s world, too many people horde their knowledge in hopes (which is really fear) of protecting their own job. But by disseminating knowledge, the whole team becomes stronger, especially in times of crisis when a vacancy may occur and other people must step up to fill that void.On another note, I greatly admire you dedication to your hiring process. I imagine that you have yet to ever regret making a hiring choice. Again, I think not enough people dedicate the time necessary to find a truly great hire – I am guilty of it myself.Best of luck to Christina, again!
I met her Sunday at the AVC MeetUp. She is great. And she is from Columbus, Ohio, that I am quite familiar with.
Hopefully, she can help bring LeBron to NYC then.
I love the apprenticeship model.Total dedication to the community and the future health of our industry.That’s awesome, Fred.
There nothing more satisfying than when you help people (and kids) grow.
FYI, the RSS feed for the USV blog is broken — see http://feeds.feedburner.com…The last two posts are not on the feed.
thanks for the heads up Dylanwe’ll figure what is wrong and fix it
BTW, if Daniel Ha or Fred sees this, I came across a little glitch here with Disqus today: when I responded to comments via e-mail and included hyperlinks in my response, those hyperlinks didn’t show up here on the blog (I’ve since edited them in).
Fred, what would an analyst-type hire have to demonstrate to make the jump to partner? It seems very generous and also a bit of a shame that you’ve obviously spent a great deal of time searching for and training USV’s junior employees, but expect them to move on, in some cases to another VC.
i don’t know Kevini honestly can’t imagine it happening at USVit’s not the kind of firm we operate
Would you say that it is more a function of USV wanting to keep the partnership small (i.e. unlikely to add partners regardless of whether internal via promotion or external) rather than whether or not your junior employees would be good partners?
It sure would be nice if he could have been teaching hundreds or thousands, though — too bad you didn’t have your iPhone 4 there to capture it in HD Video, for future generations 🙂
yup, you are so right dave
I think that, while it is true that many schools teaching a broken model, there always will be a place for learning school. Be a more efficient way few things can be taught there. Also, some people lack the discipline self-educated himself outside a school.
Definite props to Christina for making the cut. Great news for USV and even better news for the entire industry – especially the entrepreneurs vying for the money and guidance. A quick review of blog responses shows 99% came from what I call ’44 Regulars’ (my attempt at humorously stereotyping middle-aged white men via their jacket size). Don’t believe me? Look at the presenters at any industry conference for a real world visual that really can make you laugh.Don’t get me wrong, I’m not bitching. I’m celebrating! I had the great fortune of being 2nd-in-command to Rick Steele in 1998 at a startup that eventually became kinkos.com where Flatiron was the first VC money in. I’m a firm believer in diverse perspectives vs. forced diversity (a whole different discussion). So I wanted to take the opportunity to welcome Christina’s perspective that can only lead to a better discourse and better companies b/c like it or not, men and women think, decide and act in very different ways (but again, a whole different discussion).
I’d love to see a post walking us through a liquidation model. Maybe for MBA mondays?
I’d love to see a post walking us through a liquidation model. Maybe for an MBA Monday session?
Well Hardwork in right direction always pay back…
“Venture capital is best learned in an apprenticeship model”Why is this? How can this scale?
it doesn’t scaleand neither does the VC business or VC firms
Given the latest developments in California politics (i.e., Carly and Meg) you may be contributing to the next generation of government leaders as well.
Fred,Loved that story. I just started the analyst program at Bessemer last week and I can only hope that the program is as centered about instruction as USV’s. So far it has been amazing. I wonder, though, why strictly enforce a two year cutoff? What if an analyst comes along who develops over their two years all the intuition and instinct you could hope for in a post-MBA candidate?Rahul Jaswawww.rahuljaswa.com