More Than Just a Podcast

I was honored when Harry Stebbings, founder of the 20 Minute VC asked me to be a guest on his show. He’s had a number of my close friends on the show as well as some industry heavyweights such as Brad Feld, Jason Calacanis, David Pakman and others. The full audio of our interview can be found by clicking here.

But there’s a deeply important lesson behind Harry’s podcast – that you create your own destiny. Harry is 19. And he has the most popular podcast about venture capital in existence.

Between Kellogg and Chicago Booth, I would imagine I have between two and three dozen MBA students reaching out to me every year about how to break into VC. That number doesn’t include several dozen more from various professional positions in Chicago who are interested in VC, etc etc etc. All of them are looking for help – and that is fair – but they are looking at the world traditionally. Very few, if any, are brute forcing their own path.

With nothing more than a Skype account and a few cold e-mails, Harry has over the past year gained access to some of the top venture capitalists and entrepreneurs in the world.  Frankly, I’m jealous.

The podcast started simply enough when Harry recognized there was a massive amount of interest in VC, but no focused podcast less than a hour+ - effectively criminal in an age of more bite sized information. So he launched a product to solve it.

Harry’s story actually inspired me to reach out to some of the VCs I look up to for interviews on my blog (and those will be forthcoming in the next few weeks). This is a karma driven business and no one that I know of is succeeding who wasn’t mentored or given by assistance for no good reason other than pure altruism.

I have absolutely no idea if Harry is a good investor, or a good venture analyst (sorry, just the truth!). But a lot of investing can be taught – it’s access that is prohibitive. Harry is the latest proof point that there are plenty of openings to build a reputation, create relationships, and make a mark in this industry.