📶 Confluence.VC Behind the Scenes: May 2022 Update

1,762 members 👥 from 1,243 unique funds 💸 across 151 different cities 🌎

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What went right:

• Signed a new sponsor. This is a paid media partnership that will promote this company in our newsletter and podcast. As a reminder, we only work with companies or brands that have something extremely relevant to our audience of investors. If you want to partner with us, let us know.

• We've had five new businesses sign up for our talent collective. This is a matchmaking service that gives businesses a list of investors that are looking for their next role in VC. We think Confluence has become the best collection of venture talent in the world, and this allows funds to hire candidates directly from this talent pool. We've found that offering a free month and promoting the service in the newsletter has done wonders for increasing awareness and interest. If you're a fund that's looking to make better hires, you should check this out (first month is free using the code 'Firstmonthconfl).

• Started doing outreach for new members. We have a goal of hitting 2k members before the end of the summer, and we're playing around with new ways to make that happen. We're using Sales Navigator to find leads (analysts, associates, principals in VC, growth equity, or private equity), and we've started reaching out directly to potential members pitching them to join. If you're a free member and want to upgrade your account, you can do that here.

• Testing additional e-mail content ideas. When it comes to content, we're focusing more on doubling down on what is working. Job postings are some of the most-clicked resources within our weekly newsletter, and we're thinking that we need to send out a separate email every week showcasing the roles that are being featured on our board. This would drive more engagement to our job board which would increase the value prop to companies to use us for their hiring needs. It's unclear whether this will be part of the free newsletter or if this will only go to premium subscribers. If you have any thoughts on what other types of content you'd want to see from us, I'd love to hear them.

What went wrong:

• Slow growth. We need to fix our growth issues on the recurring revenue side.

• Syndicate deals slowing down. Lots of founders have been advised by their cap table to hold of on fundraising unless they absolutely have to. We're predicting that this will slow down the pace of syndicate investments. As a reminder, if you want to see our deal flow and choose the ones you want to invest in, you can back us here.

• Our in-person event for the fall has been pushed off. There ended up being too many logistical issues to get this done in time. We're still looking for ways to bring everybody togather IRL, so if you have any ideas or want to help with this, we'd love to hear from you.

What we learned:

• The internet has made everything free. When copies are free, you need sell something that can’t be copied.

• The majority of the thoughts in your head are internal scripts that you’ve learned from the world.

• Winners keep winning. If you don't have a win under your belt yet, that should be your only focus.

• You can only sell value or status. Anything else will waste your time.

• Pursuit is about what you trade to reach your goals. Sacrificing your health, relationships, and time in pursuit of money alone is a losers' game.

Links we like:

❓ VC Q&A by topic

📚 The solopreneur curriculum

🌴 Fractionalizing vacation rentals

🏀 Athletes and web3

🔒 Confluence.VC Wisdom #19

Jobs:

Firstbase is looking for a fintech business lead in New York

Caruso Ventures is looking for a senior associate in Denver

Playground Global is looking for an associate in Palo Alto

Asks:

Signup for our talent collective to make better hiring decisions.

How annoying is it to filter through 100 unqualified candidates in order to find the one that fits what you're looking for?

We've done the hard part of filtering experience for you, so all you have to do is choose who you want to work with.

All investors in the talent collective have tier-one fund experience, they don't need training, and they come with their own network and deal flow.

The first month is free using the code 'Firstmonthconfl'.

What did you think about this week’s newsletter?

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P.S. The best companies of the future are taking steps to become community-driven today. In other words, if you don't have a community strategy, you're falling behind.

Community-led businesses have:

📈 higher retention

💰 lower CAC

🛠 better user feedback

📌 stronger hiring pipelines

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- Clay and Tyler