As a VC, Your Edge Isn’t Only Your Network! It’s Also Your Learning Rate
Everyone has access to the same headlines. The real difference is who upgrades their mental models fast enough to recognize what matters, before it gets packaged into a narrative, turned into a buzzword, and priced in.
If You Never Build Anything, You’re Investing Blind
I’m going to be blunt, because this matters.
If you’re a VC investing in tech startups, and you’ve never:
played with Replit
tried a tool like Lovable
built a small script or prototype
experimented with AI automations
shipped anything, even a tiny project
…then you’re operating with a massive handicap. Because tech today isn’t “companies using software”. Tech today is builders assembling capability at insane speed.
If you don’t understand how fast building has become, you will:
misjudge timelines
misread moats
overvalue features
undervalue distribution
miss the people who actually ship
You don’t need to become an engineer to invest. But you do need to reinvent yourself enough to avoid investing based on vibes and buzzwords. The AI era doesn’t forgive intellectual laziness.
The Hidden Gem Factory
Venture capital is a people business. But it’s also a frontier business. And if you want to stay close to the frontier, where the next wave is forming, you don’t find it by refreshing TechCrunch, scrolling LinkedIn, or waiting for “signals” to become obvious.
You find it in technical events: Developer meetups, AI builder demos, hackathons, research talks, open-source conferences, niche workshops, these are where the future gets mentioned casually before it gets packaged into a narrative.
In the AI era, that gap between “builders talking” and “mainstream understanding” is widening fast. If you’re not regularly in those events, you’re not just missing deal flow.
You’re missing the source code of the future.
Not Technical? Still Go.
If you’re not technical, these events can feel overwhelming. You might lose focus. You might hear acronyms all night. You might leave thinking: “I have no idea what just happened.”
That’s normal. Don’t use it as an excuse, use it as a strategy.
How non-technical VCs can navigate technical events:
Go with curiosity, not ego. Your job isn’t to impress. It’s to learn.
Take breaks. Step out, reset, come back. Nobody’s grading you.
Talk between sessions. Hallway conversations are often higher-signal than the stage.
Ask simple questions. “What does this replace?” is an elite question.
Build your translation layer. Patterns repeat. Concepts become familiar.
Technical fluency isn’t binary. It’s a gradient.
You don’t need to become an engineer.
You need to become curious enough to spot what matters.
If You Can’t Go, Bring the Builders to You
Not every VC can attend technical events frequently. So create technical gravity inside your firm.
A few practical plays:
Host small, informal builder talks at your office
Invite engineers, researchers, and product builders, not just founders
Bring in portfolio teams and other VCs to cross-pollinate
Do live demos instead of slides
Make it safe to say: “This is unfinished” or “This is weird”
Your job isn’t only to chase deals.
It’s to build a learning engine.
The Last Day of the Week
Treat the last day of the week like a gift, not for admin, but for upgrading your mind.
Time box one learning sprint:
watch one technical talk
test one tool
write code for fun
build something tiny
invite one builder for a conversation
In the AI era, your learning rate is your edge.
Top quartile VCs don’t just have better networks, they’ll have better mental models. And mental models get built in the rooms where builders argue about the future, before the future becomes a category.
Closing Thought
If you’re investing in builders, you owe them the respect of understanding the act of building, at least enough to recognize speed, taste, and real leverage when you see it.
