Ep 8 – Valerie Shen, Partner/COO, G2 Venture Partners

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SHOW NOTES:

Valerie Shen is Partner and Chief Operating Officer at G2 Venture Partners, overseeing all operational aspects of the firm, which has almost one billion dollars under management. Valerie exemplifies many of the principles within the book 7 Rules of Power and speaks with us about how she began (yes, began) her career as a Chief Operating Officer for a venture capital firm.

In this episode:

• Valerie’s background before attending business school

• Her pivotal internship

• How she landed her job as a Chief Operating Officer

• Why she accepted the position

• How she met her mentor by sending a cold email

• The importance of choosing a focus within the company’s roles

• The importance of differentiating yourself

• What a COO does in a venture fund

• The rules of power used to get such a high-level role so early in her career

• Taking a position that matches your natural skillsets and what you enjoy

• Crafting a job that plays to your abilities

• How she got her job as COO at G2 Venture Partners

• A provocative take on her experience of being an Asian woman in tech

• The danger in highlighting differences

• The issue of cognitive load

• Advice on having the willingness and ability to self-promote

 

GUEST BIO w/ social links:

Valerie Shen is Partner and Chief Operating Officer at G2 Venture Partners. She oversees all operational aspects of the firm and fund, including fundraising / LP relations, recruiting / HR, fund administration, impact reporting, legal, compliance, and marketing.

Prior to business school, Valerie was an analyst at Kleiner Perkins’ $1B Green Growth Fund, where she helped the team found G2. Before that, Valerie was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, where she worked across four continents, primarily on energy projects. She has also held positions at the U.S. Senate, X (Google’s “moonshot factory”), Goldman Sachs, Jane Street Capital, and The Wilderness Society.

Valerie holds a B.A. degree summa cum laude in Environmental Science & Public Policy and Earth & Planetary Sciences from Harvard University. She holds an M.B.A. and M.S. in Environment and Resources from Stanford University, where she was a Siebel Scholar and an Arjay Miller Scholar.

 

Website: https://www.g2vp.com/valerie-shen
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valerie-shen/

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