Chasing Capital Ep 6 with GPV’s Earnest Sweat
6. GPV’s Earnest Sweat: Learning How to Communicate Through Equity Research, How to Best Prepare for Alumni Conversations, and Investing in Prop-Tech
In this sixth episode of Chasing Capital, I chat with GPV’s Earnest Sweat on a wide variety of topics like the importance of learning how to communicate and how to hone this skill, his path to investing in unsexy (but massive) industries like prop-tech and manufacturing, and how to perfectly prepare for a chat with an alumni in tech or VC.
Earnest Sweat is an associate Partner at GreatPoint Ventures (GPV), focusing on commerce infrastructure, physical spaces like prop-tech and manufacturing, and IT/data infrastructure like enterprise AI and no/low code products. Previously, Earnest was a founding member of the venture arm of industrial real estate owner Prologis, founding board member of BLCK VC, consultant at The Bridgespan Group, and started his career in equity research at BMO Capital Markets. Earnest studied econ at Columbia and has an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of management. Let’s dive in.
Reflections
Loved having Earnest Sweat on as the sixth guest on the podcast. I recently started researching more traditional industries like manufacturing or construction, and it was great to hear him outline the profiles of some of the founders he’s worked with in the space. One important and quite useful point he made towards the end was the best way for students to approach alumni (or anyone really) working in VC or tech.
Although cold-messaging or emailing someone is a lot less nerve-racking than cold-calling, the question of when to approach them and how to prepare is just as relevant. People (myself included) are often hesitant to reach out as they don’t want to waste the person’s time or feel like they won’t be able to hold a conversation with this far more experienced person. While a 30 minute call might not be that impactful on the alumni, it could be potentially career altering for the student, making how to prepare extremely important.
Earnest’s advice to research not only the industry the person works in, but also focus on what that person did and the content they produce, is very helpful. Additionally, his highlighting of a common pitfall in these conversations — asking VC’s how they got there in the first place — was at first surprising but actually makes a lot of sense. After hearing VC’s describe their path many times on this and other podcasts, there appears to be a lot of serendipity and circumstance involved. Therefore, as Earnest said, it’s best to focus on your interests and give the person enough context for them to then give you tailored advice derived from their personal experience.
Looking forward to the seventh episode of the podcast where I chat with Thomas Klocanas from White Star Capital where we discuss topics like his unique role as an investor in crypto and gaming, the European startup scene, and the best way for international students to break into VC in the US.
