Insight certainty 3/5 debate potential 2/5

Pai: Unconventional VC applicants should use content to signal domain seriousness

Sajith Pai · Sajith Pai, Blume Ventures on building personal brands, being open-minded, and unlearning to succeed · Jul 19, 2020 · at 9:08

Sajith Pai (Director at Blume Ventures) discusses how non-traditional candidates can break into venture capital through content creation.

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“If you are like me if you are from a, like a unconventional background for a venture firm, not in one of those hot startups or not in a VC firm, not in a, not the financial world, then I think it makes sense to kind of double down on certain aspects whether you know, whether it's like launching something like a podcast, whether it's writing whether it's evaluating, these are great, great entry points because you know, they show how much you care about the startup world. They show how, how serious you are about it, how much investment you put it. And I think it's a great signals to have.”

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