Kashyap: Corporate VC is a better training ground than traditional VC
Nagraj Kashyap · 20VC: Why Young VCs Must Have Cheque Writing Ability & Why Corporate VC Is The Best Training Ground For New VCs with Nagraj Kashyap @ Microsoft Ventures · Apr 12, 2017 · at 9:04
Nagraj Kashyap, head of Microsoft Ventures, argues that corporate VC firms are better suited for training new investors than traditional VC firms.
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“And I think that's why I think corporate VC is a great training ground. You cannot necessarily do the things I'm talking about in a normal financial VC environment, but in the corporate VC environment, you can do these things”
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More from Nagraj Kashyap
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Kashyap: Developing young VCs requires letting them write small checks early
“The lessons I've learned which have worked well is, you hire what you think are the best, smartest people, you give them responsibility very early on, and you give them responsibility by letting them essentially write small checks, make small investments”
Kashyap: Letting junior VCs make small mistakes prevents bigger errors later
“If a newly minted VC wants to write a small check, and you think that's a mistake, many times you'll say, why don't you go ahead and do it? And what happens is, If it turns out it didn't work out, they will never again do it again.”
Kashyap: Corporate VCs lack fixed check sizes and ownership targets
“In the corporate VC environment, we don't have constraints of, we have to write a check of X million dollars. We have to get 20% ownership. We only, only can invest in a sector that the LPs gave us money for.”
Kashyap: Corporate VC share will grow to 35% over 5-10 years
“Now, I don't have a crystal ball, but there was a recent report, actually just very topical, released, commissioned by Telstra, that came out just a couple of days back, which said that they see corporate VC going from 25% to 35%, I think, over the next five t…”