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Sidana: Winning in Venture Capital Resembles Competing for an Olympic Gold

Ashmeet Sidana · Ashmeet Sidana, Engineering Capital on Technical insights and building a fund for Engineers · Aug 16, 2020 · at 33:56

Ashmeet Sidana offers an analogy to explain the brutal power-law dynamics and global competition in venture capital.

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“The analogy that I would make if you think about venture capital is like winning a gold medal at the Olympics. Let's say you want to run a hundred meters, and you're really good, and you come first in your school, and then you come first in your city, and then you come first in your state, and then you come first in your country. You may still not win the gold medal, because then you have to come first, In the entire world to go get a gold medal in the Olympics. So that's the way you have to think about venture capital. How many people run a hundred meters, practice, run, play every day for that one chance to get that one gold medal once every four years. Only one person is going to get that. That is the odds that you face when you work in venture capital.”

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