2min chapter

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch cover image

20VC: Scaling from a $4M Angel Fund to $900M, Why Seed May Be The Best priced Asset Class and Not Overpriced At All & The 3 Stages of Fund Scaling and What it Takes To Build a Firm with Aydin Senkut, Founder and Managing Partner @ Felicis

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

CHAPTER

Insights on Independent Thinking and Emotional Intelligence in Venture Capital

This chapter features a quick-fire question segment where speakers express their views on various topics, notably their favorite book 'Anti-Fragile'. They also delve into the importance of emotional intelligence (EQ) in venture capital, advocating for empathy and connection over just technical skills.

00:00
Speaker 2
But I do want to move to my favorite, which is a quick fire round. So, you know, I say a short statement. You give me your immediate thoughts. Are you ready to rock and roll?
Speaker 1
Let's rock and roll. Okay,
Speaker 2
so what's your favorite book and why? All
Speaker 1
time favorite book was Anti-Fragile. And maybe that book worth rereading again now, because it was all about the black swans and how there are all these things we're not thinking about. And I think all the things that are happening in the world right now, I don't know if people were thinking US is going to go back to a high inflation country. We're going to have war in Europe as unfortunate and awful it is to watch. A lot of the things that is happening in the world today, a lot of people thought some of the climate change things is just like hockey. And we are seeing that some of the stuff is real. What
Speaker 2
have you recently changed your mind on, Aydin? Early
Speaker 1
on, I thought validation from other people was something that was really important to me, like when we were making investments. But then I realized that you need to make your decisions independently. If even 100 people are screaming at your face, it's terrible. It's absolutely wrong. Being an independent thinker is really, really difficult. One of the things that I am really fortunate is, hey, with experience and track record, I think you can be much more of an independent thinker. What's
Speaker 2
the most overlooked quality for success in venture? Everybody
Speaker 1
thinks, hey, like making a great investment is really important in venture. But listen, if there are like 100 other investors and tens of rounds, your returns get diluted. So not only do you have to be right, but you have to be right in like the absolute minority. It's very difficult. And people still think that it's a math game. It's a numbers game. They don't understand that it's as much of an EQ game. I think one of the biggest things that I learned is that, hey, being able to relate people having very strong EQs, as much of a strong factor as IQ. So I would say that's often overlooked. And maybe that's why people looked at me and like they didn't really figure out that I could be a great investor.

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