Investor Stories 425. Don't Rush the Process: Building Insights, Networks, and Patience Early in Your VC Career (Shen, Shapiro, Jiang)

This episode of TFR is brought to you by Ramp, the spend management platform we use here at TFR. They're offering listeners a $150 just to take a demo. We've never had an offer quite like this. Claim your $150 before this offer is gone at our partner link, ramp.com/partner/tfr. And this episode of TFR is brought to you by the American Arbitration Association, where smart startups and investors turn to for fast, efficient, and cost effective dispute resolution. Visit adr.org/tfr to learn more. Welcome to the podcast about venture capital, where investors and founders alike can learn how VCs make decisions and reach conviction. Your host is Nick Moran, and this is the full ratchet. Welcome back to TFR. On today's special segment, we ask guests for the most important piece of advice that they'd share with folks early in their venture career. Here's the segment called key advice. On today's special segment, we have Han Shen of iFLY. Han, if you could share one piece of advice with a young new investor, what would you tell them? I love it. The piece of advice I will share is don't rush. Right? So it's a very natural tendency for the new entrants to talk about deal sourcing. I recognized that when I was in my first couple of years because at the end of the day, promotion, GP position, carrier access, even potentially building a fund requires your deal and your track record. So there's nothing wrong going after deal sourcing for entry point associate or even principal. But I would say as much as people should work hard toward their goal, don't let that goal obscure the path or the visibility of how someone builds his or her own path forward. Right? You sometimes have to take the patience to understand the opportunities, to understand what makes sense, what doesn't make sense. It does require time. It is a piece of kind of a variable that is very hard to take a shortcut. So for my associate, I tell them, look, if you don't source at all, of course you source, you talk to people, right? But I don't count on you to source a deal that has to be done. If this never happens in your first year, first two years or even first three years, don't stress about that. Do the right kind of homework. Lay the right foundation of knowledge building, insights building, network building. Good things will happen. So that's my advice. Love it. On today's special segment, we have Craig Shapiro of Collaborative Fund. Craig, if you could share one piece of advice with a young new investor, what would you tell them? I mean, this one's an easy one because I I I I see it a lot. I would the advice that I that I do give and that I wish that I would give myself my, you know, a younger version is really find and focus on what makes you …