Carsten Gjoertler Salling

Both sourcing strategies are valuable and need to be carefully balanced within a VC firm. Based on my experience, two very different skillsets and maybe even mindsets are required to be great and not just good. This is important when VC firms design their organisations and operating models, and recruit and onboard their team members.

In addition to everything described in sections 1-5, I would highlight brand building. By building your firm’s and personal brand it will be easier and faster to build relations with better sources and thereby get access to more interesting investment opportunities.

While I explored and decided to transition from corporate venturing to venture capital, I found it extremely helpfull to consult mentors, who knew me and my two options very well. Two of the mentors I used the most, decided to launch a venture capital firm, Dreamcraft Ventures, while I was still exploring my transition. I quickly decided to make the transition and applied to become their first employee. I got the job as Investment Manager and I’m now a General Parter.

When I explored and decided to transition from corporate venturing to venture capital, I did everything described in sections 1-6, in parallel. For me, the most valuable were to experiment and learn by doing (section 6), which I did for two years as an angel investor, before I decided to leave Maersk and join Dreamcraft Ventures. During 2018-19, I made three angel investments in early-stage tech startups and were in the board of one of them. They are all still alive and one of them, Mazepay, has raised capital from VCs like Outward Ventures, Scale Capital and Hambro Perks.