📶 audiences and AUM: the flywheel behind the new venture playbook

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I forget who I heard that from originally, but that is a sentence that has changed my worldview more than almost anything else I have heard.

At their core, investment vehicles are all the same.

People invest in different assets, they sell a vision that they can do it better than the next guy, and that story attracts other people with money to join the partnership.

You can make money for yourself? Great. Now go make money for me.

But what actually drives returns? Code drives companies, so what drives funds?

The answer is intellectual property.

Writing gives poor thinking nowhere to hide, and many of the best investors in the world have given people a first-person view into how their mind works.

This writing can be used to explain investment decisions, make predictions about where the world is going, and establish credibility in an industry where the natural thoughts are skepticism.

Bill Gurley (Benchmark) understood this a while ago. So did Fred Wilson (USV), Mark Suster (Upfront), Tomasz Tunguz (Theory), and now each of these OG “bloggers” manages hundreds of millions in AUM, and their writing still works as a catalyst for a load of their investment work.

Writing helps investors shortcut the waiting game by building trust with the right people, and that is why I believe many of the top-performing funds over the next decade will be built on top of an existing media presence.

I have talked to dozens of LPs about this concept, and I have found that visuals have been the most useful.

So without further ado, here is how I am thinking about media flywheels, compounding advantages for their associated funds, and how I am running this playbook for myself.

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