What Are VCs Really Doing When They Make Content?
Recorded in Chinese
From outside the industry, I explore four possible roles for venture-capital content: establishing an identity, attracting founders, shaping shared understanding, and supporting portfolio companies.
00:03 Today I listened to several VC podcasts,
00:07 and started thinking about a question:
00:09 why does venture capital need content?
00:16 Then
00:17 I came up with four points
00:20 as my answer.
00:22 I had previously
00:25 learned a little
00:27 about a16z.
00:29 Their team is excellent at content,
00:33 and they even created
00:36 a team called New Media,
00:41 I believe, to produce content.
00:44 Returning to those four points,
00:50 the first is...
00:52 Oh, right.
00:53 I think these points matter most
00:54 for a new player in venture capital,
00:58 such as a fund
00:59 or VC firm.
01:03 What does making content mean for them?
01:07 First,
01:08 it can help
01:12 attract LPs,
01:14 or give the brand a distinct identity,
01:18 so LPs can clearly recognize
01:21 what kind of organization it is.
01:25 I was listening to a podcast episode
01:29 whose guest was
01:31 the founder of a fund.
01:34 Their fund was very young.
01:36 Because the founder had left
01:38 a large organization,
01:40 whenever people mentioned
01:42 this fund,
01:43 they thought of the old organization,
01:45 rather than
01:47 the fund itself.
01:48 So she was wondering
01:50 what they could do
01:52 to separate their identity from it.
01:55 That led to my first point:
01:57 content creates brand recognition,
02:00 so when people first hear of you,
02:02 they recognize you for yourself,
02:05 not another person
02:08 or organization connected with you.
02:12 The second point is attracting founders.
02:16 What I understand about the market now
02:19 is that many good deals
02:22 are fiercely competed over.
02:25 During that competition,
02:27 having relationships and connections
02:30 absolutely gives you a speed advantage,
02:34 allowing you to reach
02:35 the founder very quickly.
02:37 But what about funds or VC firms
02:39 that may be a better fit but lack the contact?
02:45 So I was thinking,
02:47 if
02:49 a VC organization
02:51 makes good content,
02:53 that content can become an entry point
02:57 that gathers more founders,
02:59 or gets more
03:00 founders to approach them on their own.
03:04 Some examples that came to mind are:
03:08 a16z has its CEO Summit.
03:16 Jinqiu Fund has
03:21 an event called Small Table,
03:23 I think.
03:25 And a while ago,
03:29 around the period after Lunar New Year,
03:31 I think it was after New Year,
03:35 Yunqi also launched an initiative
03:39 to support founders born after 1998.
03:45 Actually, maybe it was before New Year.
03:48 Their podcast episode
03:49 came out after New Year,
03:51 but the initiative had already begun
03:53 before New Year.
03:55 Once
03:56 they put that narrative out there,
03:58 when we think of post-1998 founders,
04:01 the first thing that may come to mind
04:03 is Yunqi Capital itself.
04:06 And when someone born after 1998
04:08 wants to start a company,
04:09 they may also think first of
04:12 Yunqi Capital.
04:15 It is like building
04:16 a strong brand narrative
04:19 and becoming a founder's first thought.
04:24 This also made me realize
04:26 that it is not only
04:27 about attracting founders
04:29 and deal flow.
04:30 It may also be about
04:32 building their own narrative space
04:34 and brand influence.
04:37 In my previous video,
04:40 I mentioned
04:42 that I was exploring
04:45 where content and information remain scarce
04:50 in an AI era of rapid production.
04:54 One answer I thought of
04:56 was creating shared understanding.
05:00 VC firms can use content as a narrative space
05:04 where they create that shared understanding,
05:08 using the platform to express views,
05:11 discuss certain questions,
05:12 and shape how certain topics are discussed.
05:16 I think this applies to
05:20 not only a16z,
05:22 but any
05:23 leading person in a field.
05:26 They probably make content
05:28 with a similar logic.
05:31 For example, abroad there is a well-known
05:35 podcast creator in product management.
05:38 He also uses a podcast
05:39 as a platform to talk with
05:42 all kinds of PMs.
05:44 Not all kinds, exactly, but
05:46 PMs with different skills,
05:49 or particular strengths,
05:52 and even founders, about certain topics.
05:55 Those discussions
05:57 then spread quickly through tech
06:00 or product circles.
06:03 They travel widely.
06:06 So the third point is to give an organization,
06:11 whether a startup or investor,
06:15 a space
06:16 to build
06:18 or create shared understanding.
06:22 That is what we call brand influence.
06:25 The fourth point is this:
06:27 we all know a16z has
06:33 a New Media team producing content steadily.
06:37 And that content is not only
06:39 about their own organization.
06:41 They also make content for portfolio companies,
06:44 or pass content skills on to them.
06:48 They have an English phrase:
06:52 "win the internet for a day."
06:56 Use content to dominate the internet for a day.
07:01 I have not clearly analyzed
07:03 how their content achieves that,
07:05 but since they have that slogan
07:09 and it has spread,
07:11 they clearly have the ability behind it.
07:13 So
07:15 empowering portfolio companies
07:18 is also very important, in my view.
07:20 It makes me think that
07:24 our country's technology narratives,
07:26 or VC narratives,
07:29 may be quite scarce.
07:34 A related book might be...
07:38 I forget.
07:39 It was published this year or last year,
07:45 Ten Years of Venture Capital,
07:47 or A Ten-Year History of Startup Investing.
07:50 After reading that book,
07:53 you can understand China's whole
07:54 venture capital story,
07:56 and how it developed.
07:57 But I have not read it yet.
07:59 It is simply the most comprehensive account
08:02 or most comprehensive body of content
08:04 I can think of.
08:06 As for other things,
08:08 very little has been recorded.
08:10 So I feel
08:12 that much of what happens in this field
08:14 circulates only within the field.
08:17 There is no unified platform,
08:21 no single place that gathers
08:24 all of these things
08:26 and becomes a point of distribution,
08:29 an outlet sending them elsewhere,
08:33 or letting them flow elsewhere.
08:41 Those are roughly the points I thought of.
08:46 I still think
08:48 that returning to scarcity in content,
08:52 creating shared understanding in the AI era
08:55 is not only something VC firms may do.
09:00 For individual creators,
09:03 it is the same.
09:06 Another point I want to mention is
09:10 that many
09:11 people outside China understand
09:14 one thing about China this way:
09:18 interaction between Chinese people
09:20 depends heavily on social circles,
09:22 on "guanxi," or relationships.
09:25 But I think
09:27 if you are someone
09:30 with a louder online voice
09:32 and greater influence,
09:35 then you already have
09:38 a great deal of power
09:40 when it comes to making connections.
09:42 You may not know an important person,
09:45 but if you have very strong
09:50 online influence,
09:52 or a strong online voice,
09:54 that can become something
09:56 that helps you connect with them.
10:03 What kind of thing?
10:05 I cannot think of the noun,
10:06 or the adjective
10:08 that would capture it.
10:10 But relying on it,
10:12 your chances of reaching them
10:15 become much, much higher.
10:19 So I think this same logic
10:21 also applies to VC content:
10:23 it works in the same way.
10:26 You make content
10:29 and create
10:31 a space for shared understanding.
10:36 That is my rough understanding for now.
10:40 But I have never worked in the field,
10:43 so this is only
10:46 a record of what I have learned.
10:49 Sometimes I feel that as someone
10:52 who has not
10:53 worked in either of these fields,
10:56 judging them
10:58 or discussing how something
11:01 in either field should be done
11:02 may be very...
11:05 Is it a very unethical thing to do?
11:08 Some insiders may
11:10 see this and think, wow,
11:12 who are you?
11:13 What right do you have?
11:15 They may say something like that.
11:18 But sometimes I feel
11:24 that precisely because someone is an outsider,
11:26 they may see more clearly
11:29 how certain things in a field should be done.
11:32 It is like why people say
11:34 that standing where humanities and tech meet
11:38 and playing a translator or intermediary role
11:42 is so scarce in the AI era.
11:45 Although I also do not know
11:48 how such a translator or intermediary
11:55 would use their position
11:58 at the intersection of humanities and tech,
12:01 or what traits
12:02 such a person would have,
12:03 what talents,
12:04 or what skills.
12:06 Actually,
12:08 I do not seem to have seen
12:11 any especially clear writing
12:13 or judgments
12:15 that help me identify
12:17 or recognize this kind of person.
12:19 Maybe everyone is also
12:23 trying things as they go.
12:28 While listening to a podcast, I heard
12:31 the founder of a fund say
12:37 that they wanted to make content.
12:39 And I thought...
12:41 How should I put it?
12:41 Later, I looked through
12:44 an article on their WeChat account
12:46 and saw a comment underneath
12:49 saying the organization resembled a16z.
12:53 At the time I thought, wow,
12:56 that comment was a little...
12:59 I do not know why,
13:01 but when a16z appears
13:04 somewhere connected with a fund,
13:07 and someone says it resembles a16z,
13:10 I start seeing that organization
13:14 through a strange filter.
13:15 I hope that filter points to something real.