A 100-Day Venture: Talking Documentation with Joey Kim

100 days ago, Romulus associate Joey Kim assigned himself a task: to film and share a one-minute video each day. Joey’s original goal was simple: to document the true daily life of a venture capitalist, which can often seem opaque to those on the outside looking in.

In the past three-plus months, Joey has offered his growing network a glimpse into the often exciting, sometimes predictable, always interesting life of a VC associate. He’s showcased the processes that help him review dozens of prospective deals each week, discussed the differentiators that make certain startups more compelling than others, and taken his viewers on a virtual plane ride (or two, or three) for events, conferences, and a spectacular Rocky Mountain State Fourth of July.

As Joey’s project comes to a close today, we’re chatting with him about why he did it, what he’s learned from it, and what’s next for him.

Talk to me about your 100-day experiment. What was it?

It was called “Venture to Venture,” and it was 100 days of one-minute videos on Instagram and Facebook documenting the daily life of a venture capitalist.

Why did you do it?

For a lot of reasons, but it really came down to one personal reason: I really wanted to prove to as many people as possible that it doesn’t happen overnight.

“It” being making investments, signing a deal, etc.?

I think whatever “it” is for you personally. “It” could be making a deal if you’re an investor, or “it” could be a personal goal that you set for yourself. I think that, like a great company, anything worth doing is not going to be built in a day.

About 70 days ago, you set a goal of sourcing and signing your first deal within the 100-day time frame. What happened?

Well, the first 30 days were just documentation: documenting everything I learned, in entrepreneurship, investing, personal life. Starting after that, I decided that from days 31 to 100, I wanted to set a goal of finding a deal within those 70 days. We came close a couple of times, but unfortunately, as things go, sometimes deals fall through.

So, the goal didn’t happen. It’s a “failure” in that I did not achieve the specific goal I set, but failure is not new to me. What is new is documenting the failure. I realize that in everything I do, in everything worthwhile that I achieve — everything leading up to those milestones are always marked with failures. And often, we don’t document those. We forget about them. And often, people looking from the outside never see it; they only see the success. And it’s important to realize that success doesn’t come about overnight.

100 days later, what have you learned?

On a personal level, it was a proof point for me that I can do something for 100 days. That’s a fact, a personal truth that no one else can take away. As an immigrant growing up, that’s something that I always think about, something that my family constantly drilled into me: create something that people can’t take away from you. That’s a big takeaway on a personal level.

And on a professional level?

Profesionally, the biggest takeaway was a demonstration that opportunities and returns really come from places we might not understand or expect. You don’t know which one of your portfolio companies is going to do incredibly well; at the end of the day, so many things can happen to an entrepreneur.

When I first started Venture to Venture, I thought, “I’m going to meet so many great entrepreneurs,” and I have, actually, but I also found out that the true returns came from getting my personal, first-degree network hyper-aware of what I was doing, and that opened a lot of other doors. That was a return on this project that I just did not expect, which really helped me out. Because every time I talk to someone now in my personal network, they say, “I know exactly what you’re up to!” It’s actually really incredible how that return has paid off for me in ways I didn’t expect.

How are you feeling at the end of these 100 days about achieving that goal of sourcing a deal to completion?

The answer is never certain, but I think we have a few shots on goal that are very promising. Over the past three or four weeks I’ve gone out to San Diego, gone out to Chicago. Meeting entrepreneurs face-to-face has been hugely and unexpectedly great in terms of return on time. I’m very bullish on a few things, but then again, who knows? Anything can happen in venture capital.

What was your favorite part of doing this every day?

My favorite part was probably interacting with people I would never have interacted with. People comment, and people have reached out — people I haven’t talked to in a while. I’ve gotten a lot of messages that start with “hey, I don’t know if you remember me, but….” It’s a great excuse for me to reconnect with people, so that’s been my favorite part.

And also, I think today, the best medium for pushing out content is video. It’s a modern diary. And becoming fluent in that language that I personally think will replace text…I don’t know where the returns will come from, but I have a feeling it will eventually pay off.

And what was your least favorite part?

I think my least favorite part was brutally and honestly putting out there all the ups and downs. We are definitely in a generation where we filter everything — to the point where it’s our first instinct. And breaking out of that that was the least comfortable part of this for me.

What’s next for Venture to Venture?

I have some ideas. I want to accomplish what I set out to do, which was source a deal and document it. If I continue to create videos, I want to take a different spin and really feature entrepreneurs as well as myself.

What was your favorite moment of the past 100 days?

Korean food. I went back to Chicago, got a chance to see my family, and my mom cooked me some incredible Korean food. And wow. I’m never happier than when I’m eating my mom’s Korean food. It’s a visceral form of comfort.

Interested in learning more about Venture to Venture and seeing what Joey’s daily life was like for the past 100 days? Check out his videos on Instagram or Facebook. He’ll see you at the top!