'A Day In The Life': Corporate Venture Capital
You went from acting in television and film to digital advertising, management consulting to ‘corporate venture capital’?
What’s your day to day like?
I often get messages on what my day looks like now in corporate VC and venture building. So, here it is. A long awaited video on where I go through my day in New York City working in innovation.
LinkedIn has flooded my inbox with hopeful messages on sharing my day to day in corporate venture capital. I get it. A little over a year ago, I was heads down thinking about traditional VC interviewing across early stage firms wondering what a day in the life of someone in innovation, incubation studios and VC looked like. While I can’t answer every message, I thought to make use of my YouTube channel and make a ‘Day in the Life’ type video - just like I did with Management Consulting. Similar to that video, no day is the same. I’m a Growth Architect.
Morning Rituals
In the video, I describe my early morning rituals. I’m not going to pretend I wake up at 4:30am nor that I’m training for a marathon.
Instead, I’ll shower, put my creams on (thank goodness for Estee Lauder anti-aging oils), make breakfast (no, I’m not a Soylent diet nor intermittent fasting gal) while listening to anything other than work. I know. Different, eh?
My world is so consumed with “tech-this, tech-that”, to the point I just wish to relax and ease into my day. Whether it’s listening to Jazz, Bossa Nova, a wellness podcast, or a prayer channel, it’s all about getting excited for my day in a positive way!
As soon as I’m ready with coffee in hand, I’m ready for my emails. LET’S GO.
Email Streak
Emails are “everyone else's to-do list for you” . Yes, Ashton Kutcher said it. They’re about working for other people. So, before I go into a black hole of emails, I’ll read my VC newsletters. I don’t need to be reading deep analysis type news given I’m not a late-stage builder or investor. It’s all in the pre-seed to early stage stuff, alongside growth metrics (i.e. LTV, CAC, CTR, etc.). I’m always checking in for the latest and greatest direct-to-consumer news too. I’m a big fan of the Femstreet, Benedict Evans, and Lenny Ratchisky type newsletters out there. They cover product, growth, and consumer behaviour, VC’s and more.
And then, yes, I’ll naturally make my way to my inbox come 8am once I’m ready to get my working-day started!
Meetings - Go-to-Market Overview
In this specific video and day, I had a GTM meeting with the Corporate Partner’s CEO. As I’m leading GTM on my current venture (incubation phase), I went over the different workstreams and their updates. This can be anything from multi-variate testing across platforms to get an initial set of unit economics, to executing on the demand generation piece (i.e. SEO, content strategy, media mix, etc.). It’s a balance of strategizing and executing.
Overseeing different workstreams can mean hiring agencies to perform against the workstream goals and provide guidance alongside execution support.
VC Ecosystem - Wining and Dining
In the corporate space I’m in right now, we’re not as entrenched in the traditional VC networking space but that doesn’t I’m not. A huge part of VC is your network for deal flow, investing opportunities and being surrounded by like-minded individuals. Corporate VC is not as dependent on deal flow nor investing opportunities as we only truly work with large corporates and the Fortune 500s. However, the space is ever-changing and I very much care about the tech community in New York and finding ways to collaborate.
In NYC, the VC space is tiny. You end up meeting and knowing everyone, as compared to SF where supposedly everyone and their mother is in VC. I’m part of a couple groups where we’ll go for dinner or go to fitness events and casually hang out. The topics vary but we’ll usually go beyond tech, products, founders and VCs. Thankfully many geek out on that stuff but we also talk about our lives, our hopes, what we’re facing and more.
Want to get more tactical on the role and responsibilities of my day? Watch the video. Starting from 10:15, I really dive into what I do specific to my cohort. Subscribe on YouTube and don’t forget to comment, letting me know what you want to see next.
Growth Architects are the jack of all trades. Terminal’s Director of Growth knows this all too well. She’s the woman who, once upon a time, was responsible for Vine’s growth, and entered the world of VC.