The New A-List VC Bloggers
Writing tweets, blogs, and checks.
Writing has played an important role in the evolution of venture capital. When VCs first started blogging, it was revolutionary because the industry was opaque and investors held all the cards. Startup founders had to negotiate complex deal terms with professional deal makers who had their own in-house legal counsel. The power balance was unfairly asymmetrical.
The pioneers of VC blogging — like Brad Feld, Fred Wilson, and Paul Graham — broke down the wall between investors and founders. The next generation of VC writers — like Mark Suster, Hunter Walk, Semil Shah, and Andrew Chen — took “value add” to a new level by sharing in-depth playbooks for founders.
We’ve now shifted into a founder-centric market where deal terms have been standardized and demystified. Even though capital surely does not flow equitably (only 2.3% of VC funding went to women-led companies in 2020!), it is a commodity, and inventors now compete for access to deals with bewilderingly lofty valuations. In this new world, writing — and that’s crafting tweet threads to penning long-form essays — can create a huge advantage. Thought leadership is a beacon for innovators and spreads well across social media.
I’m excited to highlight 5 of my favorite VC writers to amplify their ideas. These are US-based investors who have written and invested in the last year. They write about their own experience and opinions to examine the past, present, and future. Above all, they generously offer helpful content and inspiration to both founders and investors.
1. Elizabeth Yin
https://elizabethyin.com
Elizabeth is a Co-founder and General Partner of Hustle Fund, a pre-seed fund investing in software entrepreneurs. Previously, she was a Partner at 500 Startups, the Co-founder and CEO of LaunchBit (acquired in 2014), and a Product Marketing Manager at Google. She attended Stanford and MIT Sloan and her writing has been featured in TechCrunch and Forbes. Notable investments include The Hustle, Blavity, and Setter.
Few have been more transparent in their journey than Elizabeth, both as a founder and as a VC. She’s written about the experience of raising a venture fund as well as ways founders can create momentum in their fundraising. Elizabeth’s mission is to democratize wealth through entrepreneurship, and writing is clearly a powerful and key piece of her strategy.
My must-read: How we tripled our first VC fund to raise a $33.6M Fund 2
2. Li Jin
https://li.substack.com
Li is the Founder and General Partner of Atelier Ventures investing in the Passion Economy, a term she coined. Prior to starting her own fund, she was a Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Li earned degrees from Harvard and Wharton and her writing has been featured in the New York Times. Notable investments include Substack, Patreon, and Stir.
Li is betting big on individuals that make a living from their unique passions and audiences. But she’s not just cheering from the sidelines — recently she created and sold an NFT that encapsulates one of her essays along with a gif created by a childhood friend and animator/illustrator. It’s what all of this means to Li that is so inspiring to me: “As an immigrant to the US, I’ve always been captivated by the notion of the American dream and how to broaden access.”
My must-read: The Passion Economy and the Future of Work
3. Brianne Kimmel
https://wfh.substack.com
Brianne is the Founder of Worklife Ventures investing in companies that make work more flexible, creative, and human. Worklife is backed by Marc Andreessen, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan, and Alexis Ohanian. Prior to investing, she led Product & GTM strategy at Zendesk and built Zendesk for Startups. Notable investments include Webflow, Pipe, and Clubhouse.
Brianne elegantly transitioned from operator to angel to general partner, always leveraging an incredibly high-quality network rooted in Silicon Valley. I’m inspired by how she seems to learn through action — starting a SaaS-focused accelerator, building fun side projects, and curating events for founders and operators. Brianne is a proponent for building in public, even sharing her fund pitch deck, which is a rare bit of transparency for VCs.
My must-read: How Superhuman uses video game design to make work feel more like a game
4. Nicole Quinn
https://nicquinn.medium.com
Nicole is a General Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners focused on early-stage consumer and fintech companies. Previously, she was an investor at Pear VC, an angel investor, and a consumer analyst at Morgan Stanley. She earned degrees from the University of York and Stanford and has been featured in the New York Times. Notable investments include Cameo, Goop, and HAUS.
Nicole’s writing fluidly moves between disparate topics — industry predictions, her experience as a VC on maternity leave, and behavioral interviewing techniques in hiring. Early to invest in the influencer economy, she works closely with Hollywood celebrity entrepreneurs like Gwyneth Paltrow and Lady Gaga to blend innovation and culture. Nicole’s appearance as a judge alongside Jessica Alba, will.i.am, and Gary Vaynerchuk on Apple’s show “Planet of the Apps” illustrates her observation that, “Hollywood and Silicon Valley are definitely merging.”
My must-read: Goodbye and good riddance 2020. What will we see in 2021?
5. Gaby Goldberg
https://gabygoldberg.medium.com
Gaby is an early-stage investor in web3 and crypto at TCG, a multi-stage investment firm focused on consumer businesses. Previously, she was an investor at Bessemer Venture Partners and Chapter One Ventures and earned a degree from Stanford.
Gaby writes about curation, culture, identity, and ownership — all of which make an excellent lens through which to explore crypto and venture capital. In the fast-moving world of crypto, Gaby is helping us all keep up through projects like her curated web3 reading list. Her blogs on Mirror and Medium explore DAOs, tokens, and content creators with reference-rich ease. Thank goodness someone understands this stuff.
My must-read: Curators Are the New Creators
Looking for more VC content to read? I’ve compiled a list with my Twitter friends featuring wonderful women who write and invest.
