Learnings from shadowing world-class VCs and Startups.

At the Creative Destruction Lab in Toronto

Recently I was at the Creative Destruction Lab, a startup incubator for tech companies disrupting different industries. From 6am-6pm I was learning about disruptive ideas, shadowing startup <> venture capital meetings, and observing investment deliberations in big, fancy board rooms.

For part of the day, I had Tony van Marken as my mentor. He’s lead an inspiring career as an entrepreneur, venture capitalist and consultant. He’s currently a Managing Partner at First Ascent Ventures.

It’s not everyday teenagers get the chance to sit in VC meetings, so I wanted to share 6 key takeaways.

1. Understand your industry/market well. Know the TAM.
2. Understand the status quo, and make it clear. What is the specific problem you’re solving? When meeting people and pitching your idea, the problem needs to be evident. For me, this separated ‘strong business opportunities’ from ‘less defined business opportunities.’
3. Be clear on what makes you different. And why that’s better than what exists today.
4. Know your business model. If you’re collecting data, how are you going to monetize it? If you’re selling a product, how much do you think you’ll earn? Often, companies in streams like blockchain or quantum machine learning are highly technical. Their founders eat, sleep and breath tech; but you need a balance.