In this episode of the 20 minutes VC, host Harry Stebings interviews Jay Akunzo, VP of platform at Nextview Ventures, who shares his journey from aspiring sports journalist to becoming a leading figure in content marketing and venture capital. Akunzo recounts his early career at Google and HubSpot, leading to his current role at Nextview, where he develops scalable resources and workshops for portfolio companies, emphasizing the importance of content as a differentiator in the crowded VC space. He also discusses the trend of VC firms providing extensive services beyond capital, the strategic approach to business blogging, and the role of social media in content marketing. Jay highlights the significance of solving problems through content that aligns with one's product mission and the recruitment of top talent as key to startup success.
"Jay is slightly different to our previous guests as Jay has the new emerging and trending job as VP of platform at Nextview Ventures."
"As a result of Jay's amazing work, he has been named top ten b to b marketer in Boston. He's been named 70 rising social media stars and he's been named as one of the most hundred influential content marketers."
The quotes highlight Jay Acunzo's unique position and accomplishments, emphasizing the significance of his role and expertise in the venture capital and marketing fields.
"In college, I wanted to be a sports journalist... Entered at ESPN... And then when I graduated, I actually didn't have a job lined up... I just applied through an online form to Google to be a digital media strategist."
"And then from there I stayed in the Boston tech scene... worked at HubSpot as their head of content marketing for a little while and then finally landed at Nextview where I'm vp of platform."
These quotes provide an overview of Jay Acunzo's career trajectory, showing his shift from aspiring sports journalist to a key player in the tech and venture capital sectors.
"Platform means a million different things to a million different people... Basically what it boils down to for me is scalable or horizontal type projects that support an entire portfolio or more publicly an entire startup ecosystem."
"So we think a lot about that... Nextview was the first to move on it in Boston in the early stage world."
The quotes explain the role's focus on supporting the growth and development of startups within the portfolio and the broader ecosystem, highlighting Nextview's pioneering approach in Boston.
"If you're all on the same street and you all sell plain bagels, there's only so many ways you can make a plain bagel sound different than your competitors plain bagel... differentiation is more key than it's ever been."
"And a large part of making the plain bagel sound a little bit better is you can sell something different than a plain bagel, right?"
The quotes use the analogy of selling plain bagels to illustrate the need for VC firms to differentiate themselves in a crowded market by offering unique value beyond capital.
"And as vp of platform, you're not directly involved with the investments, am I right?"
"Correct. Yeah, that's right."
These quotes clarify Jay Acunzo's current role, which is separate from the investment decision-making process at Nextview Ventures, while also hinting at his interest in this area.
"I kind of want three things in my career and that's the ability to create things, creative control over those things, and then an audience that cares."
Jay Acunzo emphasizes his career aspirations, highlighting the importance of creation, autonomy, and audience engagement, which he finds fulfilled in his VC role.
"Do you think that will be the next trend? More than just VP of platform, offering extensive legal teams, extensive finance departments to their startups, do you think that will be the next trend?"
The question raised by the host is about the potential shift in VC firms to offer a broader range of services, similar to a16z's approach.
"It's more important for a firm to identify themselves uniquely. So what's the mission of that one firm? How does that firm position itself differently than other firms?"
Jay Acunzo talks about the significance of VC firms having a clear and distinctive mission that sets them apart from competitors.
"It's really about solving some kind of need or problem that your audience faces and doing that over time, being really tactical about it to make sure that you're creating this clutch of evergreen content that actually builds this guaranteed influx of traffic day after day."
Jay Acunzo advises on the strategic approach to blogging for startups, focusing on creating valuable, evergreen content that addresses the audience's problems.
"The bells and whistles are great. The design can be great... But all of that is just noise or it could incrementally help your blog eventually if it is up and running."
Jay Acunzo remarks on the potential distraction of focusing too much on design when the primary goal should be to produce content that resonates with the startup's mission and audience's needs.
"So rather than go run out of the gate and create some custom, beautiful blog, better is just use out of the box tools, WordPress, squarespace, whatever, and just really focus on what you're putting out the door."
The quote emphasizes the importance of prioritizing content over the design of the blog when starting. It suggests that the substance of the content is more critical than the platform's aesthetics.
"You solve it less well with content, and that's great because you can drive towards the product and you also might have a little bit of like a mission over the content that you can use to market your product."
This quote highlights the idea that content should address the same problems as the product, albeit less effectively, to naturally lead the audience towards the product. It also suggests that content can be infused with a mission to enhance product marketing.
"Very rarely should you look, especially in the early stages, at the results of your blog posts today or even this week."
This quote advises new bloggers not to be discouraged by the lack of immediate traffic to their posts, as content marketing is a long-term strategy.
"If it's evergreen content that addresses a problem facing your market, because you can use that over time, it can build the floor of traffic to buoy other stuff you can send it either through sales channels or marketing channels."
The quote explains the value of creating evergreen content that solves market problems, which can be used repeatedly to drive traffic and support other marketing efforts.
"So one, it's really good for traffic if you can kind of tilt it that way."
This quote notes Twitter's potential to drive traffic to content when used effectively.
"But the action I really want, in addition to positive brand sentiment, is for people to click through and actually read our content, subscribe to our email list, et cetera."
The speaker emphasizes the ultimate goal of using Twitter to direct followers to engage more deeply with content and subscribe to email lists for long-term relationships.
"Know, I don't think it's about focusing on Twitter engagement, really, and trying to say that's the end goal, let's increase the output."
The quote suggests that increasing Twitter engagement should not be the primary objective; instead, the content should aim to address problems and add value.
"We do a lot of weird shit on Twitter that we wouldn't do in person, but that should stop so one of the major things is asking for things way too soon before you actually know the person."
This quote criticizes the common practice of immediately asking for favors on Twitter without having established a relationship, likening it to inappropriate behavior at a social event.
"It's asking for things way too soon before you actually have a real relationship."
Here, the speaker reiterates the importance of building a real relationship before making requests, emphasizing the need for patience and genuine engagement on Twitter.
I wrote this post for HubSpot and worked with a friend of mine who's a designer... comparing the Paypal mafia and all the legendary success that came out of that one company and one clutch of talent.
This quote explains that Jay Acunzo created content that compares the success of the PayPal mafia to another successful group, emphasizing the impact of a concentrated talent pool.
So I actually work with one of the members of the founding team of PayPal, which is Lee Hower, he's one of the founders of our firm at Nextview.
Jay's collaboration with Lee Hower provides him with direct insight into the PayPal mafia's dynamics and success.
I think it starts with the founders really, and their ability to recruit talent.
Jay attributes the success of the PayPal mafia to the founders' talent recruitment capabilities, suggesting that this was a key factor in the group's collective achievements.
It's far and away the best thing they could do at the seed stage.
Jay emphasizes the importance of recruiting top talent for startups at an early stage, indicating it's the most beneficial action they can take.
We have this proprietary system that we're running for our startups to surface and interview and hire the best talent.
This quote reveals that Nextview has developed a unique system to assist their startups in the recruitment process, highlighting the firm's proactive approach to talent acquisition.
The best aspect is I get to tell really interesting stories and create really interesting media.
Jay finds satisfaction in storytelling and media creation, which he considers the best part of his job.
There's really not an analytics report that could say VC platform is leading to this many deals.
This quote highlights the difficulty in quantifying the impact of VC platform activities on deal generation, which Jay finds to be the worst aspect of his job.
Marketing, there's a great organization called the Content Marketing Institute.
Jay points to the Content Marketing Institute as a valuable resource for content marketing professionals, indicating its importance in the industry.
Kitchen confidential... it's also just the showcasing of how great a storyteller Anthony Bourdain is.
Jay praises "Kitchen Confidential" for its demonstration of Anthony Bourdain's storytelling skills, which he finds personally and professionally inspiring.
Now for all the incredible resources mentioned on today's show, head on over to the blog at Ww dot thetwentyminutevc.com.
Harry directs listeners to the blog for additional resources, emphasizing the value of the content provided in the podcast.
And likewise, if you'd like to see Jay's blog, head on over to sorryformarketing.com.
This quote provides listeners with the location of Jay Acunzo's blog, offering further insights into his thoughts and expertise.