5 tips on how to start a VC by Maya Horgan Famodu

Some weeks ago, Maya did an interview on Forbes dropping tips on how to start a Venture Capital, using her personal journey of building Ingressive Capital as an example. It was an amazing read and here are some highlights from it;

1. You don't need a big ticket anchor investor to start.

"There’s this pervasive and entirely inaccurate belief in venture capital that keeps more people from participating. It’s the belief that you have to have a big-ticket anchor investor to set the terms and fill a meaningful percentage of your target fund size to start. I took extremely “vanilla” documents and shopped them to high net worth individuals (HNIs)"

2. Consistently Network and Make a list of Individuals who can invest.

"Over the course of a year of gathering 6-digit individual commitments, this group cumulatively became the size that would constitute a single “anchor LP.” We didn’t close our first $1M until about a year after that."

3. Stay Resilient, It is a game of numbers;

"I have a list of every investor I pitched — about 375 investors. I did 375 straight pitches. On average, I landed about 10% — 1 in every 10 investors I spoke to committed to the fund. It’s honestly a numbers game that most people can achieve if they stay resilient.

4. Maintain contact with investors and update them on your accomplishments.

"When I tried to launch a fund at 23 with a year of work experience, nobody committed. But I maintained contact with the investors to whom I had pitched. I made sure that they knew about every major update, every press mention, and every company in which Ingressive had invested that then went on to succeed"

5. Prove you’re a good “picker” with a promising strategy.

"Half of our investors backed us because they learned over time that I could see something years ahead. The other half backed us believing I’m the most headstrong and persistent person they know and will never give up until I hit my target."

Extra tip; Stay Persistent, Keep your network close and keep learning.

"I used to be offended when people called me “persistent,” but it’s actually a differentiator that has contributed majorly to my success. Stick it out, keep your network close and stay in touch, and keep learning constantly, especially from your mistakes."