Early Failures

By editor on January 28, 2018 — 1 min read

Even when I was in college, I was really infatuated with what I romantically thought being a VC was like. So much so, I remember trying to get a summer internship at a VC firms. I mailed letters to every single top VC and every single partner, describing who I was: I have this undergrad in double E [electrical engineering], I’ve done all this cool stuff in telecommunications, I’m a relatively good programmer. Is there an interesting opportunity for me to help you? Apprentice you? I don’t want to get paid.

Everyone said no. Meaning, they didn’t even respond to my mail, except two people. They probably don’t even know this to this day.

I got a really nice, thoughtful, letter from Vinod Khosla, and a really nice, thoughtful, letter from John Doerr. The only thing I regret is not having kept those letters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHslS0QPMSc 12:40

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Editor's Note

These are Chamath Palihapitiya's words. They are probably some of the best thoughts on VC, business, and life, but were scattered around the Internet. They live now in this archive.