There’s no such thing as a traditional path into venture. While some believe investment banking / founder experience is essential, I’ve learned that everyone enters this field with their own unique set of skills. The one thing that you must have is a crazy amount of curiosity.

You have to always be on / hustle harder than the rest. Excelling in venture requires immense hustle. As Bill Gurley says, “you must explore every opportunity to hit a home run."

The best investors refer to their portfolio companies as “we” and “us.” Instead of “them” or “company xyz.”

Dot-connecting is an ultimate superpower in venture. Whether connecting a founder to a resource or relating to a past experience, frequent reflection is key.

Know EVERYTHING about your local ecosystem. Learn how things work in your city, who's making deals, how the market changes, and info about schools / talent. Be the person everyone thinks of when they talk about your city.

Events can be a great lever for deal-flow. There are a ton of strategies for building a strong top-of-funnel for deal-flow. Two of my personal bets are on community building and media. With events specifically, I believe that creating your own events is more powerful than attending others.

You should be in the trenches with your founders. From my early experiences, I realized the importance of being hands-on / collaborating closely with founders to reach our collective objectives.

Don’t get stuck in the illusion of explanatory depth. It's okay not to know everything (instead, know what you don’t know). And as Einstein said, if you can't explain it simply, you don't fully understand it.

Avoid groupthink at all costs. It’s easy to form an opinion based on how someone else sees something. But at the same time, the hardest part about being a contrarian is being right.

Master the art of asking questions. VC is all about figuring out which questions are the right questions to ask.