The 6 VCs You'll Meet

I’ve been in venture for ~10 years now. Not long enough to pretend I’ve seen everything, but long enough to work with a pretty wide spectrum of VCs.

And I think there are only 6 archetypes of “good VCs.”

Most firms are some blend of these, but almost all spike hardest in one.

For founders, the important question isn’t “who’s the best investor?”, it’s “what do I want an investor to do for my company?”

The Superconnector

This is the well-networked investor. The one constantly making introductions to customers, recruits, partners, future investors, press, and so on.

They’re usually extroverted and event-forward.

When they’re good, they can have a very tangible impact on company trajectory (especially early-on) because they increase a company’s surface area quickly. They effectively become an extension of the company on the ground.

The Capital Factory

The original Capital Factory was probably Tiger Global.

These investors are all about fast processes with minimal friction for founders. They’re valuation insensitive (and usually the least dilutive).

It’s been hard for many VCs to wrap their heads around this persona but it turns out some founders don’t want a deep relationship with their investors. Instead, they optimize for speed, conviction, and low operational overhead.

The King Maker

These are the firms other VCs follow - Sequoia, Benchmark…when they lead, downstream capital often follows.

Kingmaking gets criticized, but venture markets are partially social systems. Perception compounds - once a company gets perceived as a winner, it can become materially easier for them to actually win.

And the interesting thing is, King Makers aren’t the firms writing the biggest checks. They’re the ones whose participation tells others, particularly Capital Factories, to pile in capital.

The Moonshotter

These are typically pre-seed and seed funds that will take risks on teams or markets that look very unusual.

Not “slightly contrarian” but actually hard for others to understand.

Some of my favorite examples:

• Concept Ventures backing ElevenLabs in 2022 before voice AI was mainstream (now they’re worth $11B!)

• Nebular backing Starcloud before “data centers in space” became a serious conversation (and now, companies like Google are talking about launching data centers into orbit)

• Ubiquity Ventures backing Halter in 2018 long before most investors could grasp the scale of a software platform for livestock management

At the time, these ideas would have sounded absurd to most investors. Now they look more obvious. The best Moonshotters can underwrite long before consensus forms so founders with really out there ideas should prioritize finding them.

The Sector Sage

These are firms that become deeply associated with a category:

• In cyber: Ballistic, Team8, Cyberstarts

• In consumer: Forerunner, Maveron

• In fintech: Ribbit, Better Tomorrow Ventures, QED

Their brand becomes intertwined with the market itself so their involvement is a positive signal to the broader market.

The Hypeman

The ultimate supporters. They repost every company milestone, major announcement, and fundraise.

These firms understand that attention is a strategic resource with benefits coming from having large audiences on X, LinkedIn, podcasts, YouTube, TikTok, etc.

And increasingly, distribution matters almost as much as capital. Some good examples are Mantis VC (firm founded by the Chainsmokers) and 20VC.

Most firms will have a major and some minors.

Very few firms are purely one thing. For example, I’d say my firm, Modern Technical Fund, primarily operates as a Superconnector with elements of Sector Sage (cyber + software infra) and Hypeman.

But the bigger point is that founders should stop evaluating VCs as one homogeneous group. Some companies want help with distribution. Others want signaling. And others want a fast process so they can get back to work as soon as possible.

The best founders usually understand this early. They know what function they want their investors to play and lean into that when fundraising.