i got obsessed with startups in high school. not in a "i read TechCrunch once" way, genuinely can't-stop-thinking-about-it. venture capital, innovation, the mechanics of how new things get built and funded. it consumed me.
so i did what made sense at the time and studied mechatronics engineering. ended up working in additive manufacturing. 3D printing for aerospace and medical. genuinely cool work. genuinely not where my head was at.
i wanted to get into VC. so i networked my arse off. cold emails, coffees, LinkedIn messages into the void, events where i knew nobody. the rejection rate was brutal. VC is one of those industries where the door isn't just closed. it's not even marked.
i had to learn an entirely new way of thinking. from "how do i build this" to "should this be built, by who, and why now." from engineering first principles to market dynamics, cap table mechanics, fund structures, term sheets. all of it self-taught, mostly the hard way.
i made it. i'm in VC now. and here's the thing nobody tells you. getting in doesn't mean you suddenly understand everything. the industry runs on assumed knowledge and unspoken rules. everyone acts like they always knew how a SAFE works, what pro-rata rights mean, why some deals move fast and others die slowly in "due diligence."
they didn't. they just learned quietly and pretended they always knew.
i'm building what i wish existed before i got into this. honest, plain-english writing about how VC actually works: the mechanics, the culture, the APAC context that US-centric content completely ignores.
not thought leadership. not LinkedIn inspiration. just someone who recently had to figure all this out, writing it down so the next person doesn't have to learn it the hard way.
if you're a founder trying to understand what's happening on the other side of the table, an aspiring VC who doesn't know where to start, or just someone who finds this world interesting, this is for you.