Coffee Chat with Brett Anderson, Head of VC Operations at Bullish
I wanted to sit down with Brett from Bullish to talk about VC Operations for two reasons: First, VC Operations sounds like an interesting world – I’ve never heard of it but am truly intrigued. Second, Brett has worked with brands like Bubble, which is captivating the hearts and minds of Gen Z and Gen Alpha. My goal was simple - learn how Brett or someone that works in VC operations approaches the job.
A big takeaway from business school has been the art of establishing credibility. I’ve learned that often (especially for women) credibility can be achieved by displaying competence. One important takeaway from Brett’s response on this topic is her background in working at an agency. Already, she’s not your typical VC.
Q: How do you establish credibility or get buy-in when you're working with founders?
A: This is where I'll pull in my operating like agency side experience. One of the things that is a gift that I wouldn't have thought was a gift when it comes to relationship building is my background in services. I was in professional services for a very large part of my career. I have learned how to temper my own ego. I've learned how to read people. I've learned how to be really respectful of people, essentially everything needed to be in the services industry. And there's mentality parts that I bring into conversations with founders that I believe lend credibility to what I'm saying and shows that I’m trying to be a partner to them. There’s the general temperature that you set, and, for me, the action of being really responsive; that's services organization, one-on-one. You respond to your client in five seconds. I'm going to respond to a founder or a potential investment as quickly as possible. Another thing that has been helpful for me is being very authentic. I do not have the same quantitative skill sets that a lot of other investors have. It's not my background, and it’s not what I'd love to do. I’m not trying to force questions or force a conversation that I'm not confident in. I will ask the questions that I know, but I'm going to come to any conversation respectful of your time and respectful of you. I think people can feel when you're not being authentic and that's when major red flags go off. There's also the functional part since I did work in brand building for some time. I have always tried to be really honest with my advice and really honest with my feedback whenever I'm talking to a founder. That provides them with an understanding of where my background is and what I have been able to do. If we do end up working with them then there are certain founders that we have rapport and can just start bouncing off conversation. This aids in a virtuous cycle of reputation building, because founders will recommend other founders to us. I've also had conversations with founders who didn't give me the time of day. Frankly, it's often folks who just didn't think that I was important enough for them and you just have to move forward. I don’t take that personally.
At the same time, I feel like brand-building is ever-changing. For the longest, the playbook seemed to receive minimal refinements, but now in the era of social media, the art of connecting with consumers seems to constantly shift. I was curious how you can maintain a temperature check, but judging from what Brett shared, the best way is to stay in the action:
Q: In this ever-changing marketing environment, how do you improve or learn more skills?
A: We are always doing projects and working for clients, so continuing to learn is forced upon me. Also, being in conversation, newsletters, and talking to people really helps. That to me is 90% of it, but I think that when you're doing the work, that's the large majority of your ability to stay up to date with what is happening. And then if I don't know and someone asks me, I'll be honest and then I'll research it. I think it's nice, because I have the ability to talk to a lot of different people about this being at Bullish. I really love being in an environment where people can teach me, and I’m open to it. When you are in any industry that’s going to move exponentially, you have to surround yourself with people who are smarter than you and be open to learning from them at any given moment.
Q: And speaking of learning, what do you want to learn more about?
A: I'm going to address my personal life and then the professional. In my professional life, it’s AI. I think that’s basically the only answer anyone should give. That might be a little bit hyperbolic, but it kind of is right. LLMs, generative AI, multimodal AI, all of these things are revolutionizing the way that every single industry works. I would love to do 2 weeks of just deep, intense AI sessions. It is like the Internet, except it is bigger. It's going to change everything for better and for worse. I do think it's important to understand the larger technological world that you live within and how to apply it to your job. Personally, I love history and my favorite history podcast is the rest is history. I think history is hugely valuable to know.
Altogether, I couldn’t agree more that AI is experiencing the greatest growth, so we should all be keeping a pulse and learning. Even further, I think it will continue to catapult how we connect with consumers, and therefore how all products or services are marketed or branded. With AI-powered analytics, businesses can gain deep insights into consumer habits, preferences, and trends in real-time, enabling them to tailor products and services more effectively than ever before.
Other important soft-skills that I noted are coachability, authenticity, and using EQ. I got the sense that a role like Brett’s may not always be clear-cut, but I was happily reminded that curiosity goes a long way.
