Spent a few days in sunny Miami last week connecting with fellow VC Platform teams.

A few things stuck out...

1) Brands (VC and startup) still exist in a "sea of sameness"

A whole lot of AI brands are designed in black and white (s/o Jeffrey Zhao) and a whole lot of VC brands tout "value add" and "operator led" (s/o Nina Willdorf). We can all work harder to stand out, and we all need to get clearer on how we're unique.

2) Platform is different everywhere.

Almost everyone I talked to had a slightly different way of helping the firm and the portfolio grow. That's a great thing! We're all bringing something different to the table. Now we need to become better at communicating our firm's special sauce.

3) Every firm struggles with platform career paths.

Where do you go once you're on the VC side? Key is to hire people who don't expect a title change every year or two, but recognize that the upside is in the incredible variety of work we get to do and the ability to grow new skill sets with talented peers.

Last week the VC Platform Global Community illuminated Miami with our 7th annual global summit. And it was 🔥

When I reflect on the community’s first summit hosted by Bethany at the Union Square Ventures office with 40 folks, I remember leaving the gathering feeling that I found my people. It helped me gain confidence in my role. I learned new skills. I felt energized. Seven years later, I still feel the same way leaving the conference which has now grown to 500+ attendees from around the world. Over the last few days my inbox has been flooded with folks sharing that they had those same feelings I did after my first summit. And that truly warms my heart. This summit has become THE gathering for VC Platform folks. Period. Through countless hallway conversations, panels, roundtables and dinner chats I left Miami with a notebook full of ideas and inspiration.

In the ‘Building a Real Community Amongst Portfolio Founders’ session led by Bryan Mason of True Ventures: the resounding message? Cultivating a robust community isn’t just about numbers; it’s about curating a unique and enriching experience for founders. In the world of early-stage startups, where resources can be scarce and teams are lean, the value of a supportive network cannot be overstated, especially as one of these startups’ first investors.

…But building community isn’t a one-size-fits-all endeavor. As we gleaned from the summit, it’s not merely about the CEO or founders; it’s about empowering every member of the team. One idea that was pitched in this session: organizing meetings tailored to specific job functions or industry segments, you can ensure that portfolio companies can connect authentically, leveraging each other’s expertise and experiences. Asking founders about any immediate needs in the next six months for an onboarding call is also a great starting point. It’s also essential to gauge the receptiveness of founders and tailor initiatives accordingly. Respect for founders’ preferences and needs is paramount; after all, a forced community yields little value. Instead, we strive to be as present and responsive as possible.

It should not be a surprise that platform folks would curate an excellent conference, and I thought I’d share some quick takeaways from my experience:

Optimize for peer to peer learning and networking
No one wants to sit in endless panels! In a community as diverse in function and approach as VC Platform, there’s amazing wisdom in the crowd. Was really great to take part in (and lead one) sessions where peers learn from each other in moderator-led discussion circles.

Find opportunities to create meaningful and fun collisions
The team used Orbiit to curate meaningful tables for meals, around shared interests and backgrounds. I was surprised by how much I had in common with folks at my breakfast (looking at you Leadra Elerger). Lunch conversations were centered on interests such as “biking,” “science fiction,” or “astrology fans.”

Allow your sponsors with opportunities to genuinely shine and deliver value
As a sponsor, we were given a few speaking opportunities, and we were committed to showing up genuinely for this community and not be too sales-y. Mallory Contois is Mercury’s head of community delivered a talk on how she creates magical communities, something she and Natalie Riso do every day, but also something that’s very relevant to platform leaders who are focused on community.

Create clear systems for logistics, discovery, and learning
With a conference of this scale, size, and content, it can be easy to get lost. The team used Whova for agenda, impromptu meetups, and announcements, and Notion was used to include all presentations and notes for sessions. What an incredible case of crowdsourced knowledge sharing!

Bring in experts on hot topics
Some of my favorite sessions included conversations by experts such as Cliff Worley and Adam Shevell from WSGR on AI…Another great session was my former colleague Casey Renner’s discussion with Carolina Küng about building effective advisory networks. So fun to learn from these greats!

If you’re an introvert, put yourself out there BEFORE an event: It’s far easier as an introvert to navigate big events with lots of networking opportunities if you already have a few key anchor moments built in. In addition to hosting a Thought Leadership Roundtable, I loved that the summit organizers this year offered the option to join dinners focused on specific interest areas. Both of these opportunities let me connect with people I might not have otherwise in a focused, meaningful way.

VC comms people are bullish on collaboration: As I heard numerous times and saw evidence from across the summit, while the stereotype is for VC firms to operate with secrecy and competition at their core, people in venture capital comms are an extremely collaborative bunch. It makes sense that I would have this hammered home: the VC Platform Community is rooted in the need for more interactivity among VC platform people in general. On top of that, VC comms people very often work on tiny teams or solo. The craving for info-sharing is real!

You never know where you (or anyone else) will wind up: Life is funny. One day in your past life as a content creator/journalist, you’re interviewing an independent designer about her sustainable handbag line (then buying) for your podcast. IDK, around eight or 10 years later, you’re at the VC Platform Summit still carrying the backpack and bag she designed because they’re still awesome. Now you’re both in the platform space. Phuong M. so glad we got to chat! Sidebar: it is interesting to me how many people I connected with from the fashion, entrepreneurship, sustainability + tech arena are now working in and around venture (thank you to Aubrie Pagano for being my entry point).

AI is cool, but it’s not taking anyone’s job anytime soon: Well, not jobs from comms people. We were treated to an excellent AI deep dive by Cliff Worley, whose tips on using tools like Claude.ai have led me into a new PR workflow that has been really useful (will share in a separate post soon).