Develop a Point of View and Let Your Advantage Compound

**David Zhou** (0:02)
It's about all the things that they could have done better, where they don't have home field advantage. And there are things that everyone talks about, which is like, oh, wait, here's how I do my sourcing. I have AI, I go to YC demo days, whatever it is. That's what everyone does.
But figure out the things for yourself as a GP, and this is really interesting to talk about in the first or second meeting, that you really optimize for, that you are built different in that way, and you then double down.

**Gopi Rangan** (0:31)
Thank you for listening to The Sure Shot Entrepreneur, a podcast for founders with ambitious ideas. Venture capital investors and other early believers tell you relatable, insightful and authentic stories to help you realize your vision.
Welcome to The Sure Shot Entrepreneur. I'm your host Gopi Rangan. I'm here with David Zhou. He is the host at a popular podcast called The Superclusters. I'm a very ardent follower of the podcast as well. It's a pleasure to have a fellow podcast host as a guest on this podcast.
David is also the co-founder of The Side Letter. Side Letter serves limited partners who invest in emerging managers in the venture capital ecosystem. We're going to learn more about both of those and his overall role in helping limited partners navigate this complicated world of venture capital. David, welcome to The Sure Shot Entrepreneur.

**David Zhou** (1:36)
Oh man, that's weird. It's surreal because I've heard your voice in my ear for eons. And it's usually like a passive, like I'm a consumer. I'm not like a co-producer of the content that you're producing. And it's weird that you're saying this live and I am hearing it as if I was listening to Spotify.
But thank you for having me.

**Gopi Rangan** (1:59)
Welcome. Welcome. Thank you for that. It's great to hear that you've watched many of the episodes at Sure Shot Entrepreneur. And now you're a guest. Welcome. Where are you from?

**David Zhou** (2:10)
I born and raised in the Bay Area. Didn't go very far. Went to school in the Bay Area on this very little known school on top of a hill called Berkeley. And then continue to reside in the Bay Area where, let's say, it's the mecca of technology and innovation.

**Gopi Rangan** (2:27)
And you made your way into the world of venture capital on your own. Like you charted your own path. How did that happen?

**David Zhou** (2:35)
A lot of happy accidents. I got into entrepreneurship because I was eating too much. At the time, I had just finished swimming and I was eating about 8,000 to 9,000 calories a day.
And I effectively got kicked out of the dining commons, but I needed to go find my way and eat still. And so I ended up meeting two individuals who were going through the MBA program at the time, who were building a class project servicing local businesses.
And along the way, I ended up joining the team and we ended up starting this thing called Localize. And that was that. Our first investor for that company ended up being Caroline at Skydeck. And when she was starting off and building her fund, as Skydeck was going from non-profit to for-profit, I was just in orbit enough times. Arguably, I saw her a couple of times taking too much free swag. I'm a big fan of swag. I have this huge thing where it's like, if it's for free, it's for me kind of thing. And I had that back in college. And so she caught me red handed taking almost too much swag at hackathons. But that's a longer story for another day.

**Gopi Rangan** (3:34)
What do you like about venture capital, this whole ecosystem? What do you like about being an LP? What do you like about VCs? What do you like about startups?

**David Zhou** (3:42)
This is probably not a response I've ever said publicly before. I've journaled about it for sure, but I've never said publicly, which is, as a kid, I used to read a lot. Probably still read a lot, but it's a different genre of books now. And the books that I loved most were fantasy and science fiction. I religiously consumed that and at a certain age, I was consuming about seven books a week, purely on science fiction and fiction. And I love the future. I love imagination. And there are very few jobs in the real world that allows you to continue to imagine, and not only that support where imagination can take us. And maybe this is also the genetics of having two entrepreneurial parents also being born in the Bay Area.