JBP 4 USV

This is my campaign for the Investment Analyst position at USV (if you need it spelled out: John B. Petersen for Union Square Ventures)

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JBP4USV: The End of the Road

It's painful for me to write this first sentence, so let's just get it out of the way...

Yesterday afternoon I was informed that Union Square Ventures was no longer interested in considering me for the analyst position. I did not make the cut.

I am immediately taken back to the beginning of the summer and one of my first posts entitled "Their Mistake, My Fault" about receiving my TechStars rejection email. Looking back at this post, I am reminded of three things:

I was overly optimistic about my chances to get into extremely competitive TechStars NYC program at the time. Looking back at the teams that were selected and just completed the program, these teams totally blew us out of the water for the various reasons stated in my post. So it was certainly not "TechStars Mistake" -- they made the right choice. It was our ambitious mistake, but I'm still very happy for the experience of applying.

I love my enthusiasm and optimism in the face of rejection. It's awkward for me to quote myself, but this statement is totally appropriate (again). "I don't make excuses or have regrets. I make shit happen and learn from the past."

Mark Suster again provides comfort with his sympathetic post that sums up my feelings exactly -- "Embrace Your Loses - They Will Make You Stronger"

Reading through Mark's post again, it's scary how accurate his assessment reflects what I am going through right now. It is so authentic and real, and that's why I love it and have to quote his whole opening paragraph just to make myself feel better.

"I HATE LOSING. I hate it. I really, really, really, hate it. It chaps my hide. It rips at my core. I don't get over it easily. I lose sleep. I fucking hate losing. It's not so much the actual outcome that I hate - it's the process. The fact that I lost when I should have won."

And in that final sentence he says it all. "The fact that I lost when I should have won." I look back on the TechStars rejection, and I now can say we should not have been in the same class as those companies. But this is different. Maybe in time I will come to feel the same way I did about TechStars, but this, right now, is different.

I am still convinced that if I made it through the initial screening process, I would have been the last one standing at the end of the interviewing process. I know there are some extremely talented people interviewing for the position, and this is by no means a knock on them. I honestly believe that I would have come out on top given the opportunity to go through the in-person interviewing. Maybe it speaks to my strength to interview in person or to the fact that I could have done better with the video interviews, but I know I would have shined.

(Oh, and for the record, I am aware of how ridiculous that last statement may sound. I know. I didn't even make the cut for the top 10% of the applicants and I'm still convinced I'm the best person for that position. That's just who I am.)

So now that I have that out of my system, it's time to move on.

I have nothing but the utmost respect for USV, and I wish nothing but the best for all the candidates who are still in the mix. Honestly. I am not a sore loser or hold grudges. I live. I learn. And I become better because of my loses. USV is a tremendous company and means so much to the NYC tech community, and I know they will continue to do well.

I certainly have learned a lot from this process, and I am truly thankful for that. I will second guess myself on a lot of it, but that's just the way I am. I hate losing and hate rejection, but I accept it as an integral part of how I improve and grow.

At the end of the day, this rejection is just another stepping stone of my personal philosophy on life:

Learn. Grow. Dominate.

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JBP4USV: Livin' and Breathin' NYC Tech

As part of my quest to become the next Analyst at USV, I’ve started this campaign JBP 4 USV to provide the world (read USV) with some insight to the hard coding in my brain that makes me tick — the skills and differentiators that make me the ideal candidate.

“Livin' and Breathin' NYC Tech”

(All of my images are created using Canvas because, well, you get it)

For the final installment of JBP 4 USV, I have certainly saved my favorite for last.

I have lived in the NYC area (read Hoboken) for the last 10 years now and have always been an outside observer of the growing strength of the tech community. That all changed the beginning of this year.

Since rekindling my childhood passion for technology, I have integrated myself in the NYC tech scene and become more in love with it every day. I have been attending as many events, meetups, coffee meetings, Skillshare classes, Ohours meetings, hackathons, workshops, and other random tech things as humanly possible. I can't get enough.

It was amazing to see Mayor Bloomberg at the New York Tech Meetup rallying the troops to make the NYC tech community second to none and initiatives they have planned to support this.

That is what excites me most about this position at USV -- the opportunity to be at the heart of the NYC tech scene, but...

"With great power comes great responsibility"

This position demands a person who is prepared to meet that responsibility with the energy, passion and hustle required to match the greatness of the past USV analysts.

Aside from all the other reasons why I want this position and all the reasons I think I would be a perfect fit at USV, this is what excites me the most. The opportunity to directly be involved with and support entrepreneurs, particularly in NYC, and give back to the community is something that cannot be overstated.

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JBP4USV: Creating the Triple Threat

As part of my quest to become the next Analyst at USV, I’ve started this campaign JBP 4 USV to provide the world (read USV) with some insight to the hard coding in my brain that makes me tick — the skills and differentiators that make me the ideal candidate.

"Creating the Triple Threat”

(All of my images are created using Canvas because, well, you get it)

When I speak to students who are interested in startups, I talk about the opportunity that they have while they are in school. They are in the business of learning and should take full advantage of that situation.

If you are a programer, take a class on business or operations. If you are a business student, take a programming class. I'm not saying you have to become an expert in this new area, but you want to become more well-rounded. Speak the language.

What kind of mentor or teacher would I be if I didn't take my own advice? A shitty one, obviously.

So I set out to create the triple threat -- an engineer with a business / financial background who can code.

I graduated from Stevens Institute with a degree in Engineering Management (a business engineering major that combines core engineering with operations management and financial engineering). I then took my talents to Wall St. because that's where successful people in NYC went, right? Ha!

After almost 4 years, the entrepreneur in me couldn't take it anymore, so I left my comfortable, stable, successful corporate world to start my own Wealth Management company. This seemed like the right move because that is the industry I knew. Through networking for the wealth management business, I became infatuated with the tech startup universe. And for the past 6 months, I have been completely immersed in the tech scene.

To take it a step further, I decided I needed to teach myself to code. So for the last month or so, I've been learning the basics of Ruby on Rails. I've been learning to code so I can speak the language and have a better understanding of what it takes to actually turn idea into product. The engineer in me needs to understand how things work, how a site is created, how the APIs work, what logic is behind algorithms, etc.

Creating the triple threat is a never-ending process for me. My goal is contant, never-ending improvement. Learn a little something new and improve myself a little bit everyday. My financial hat tells me that the compounding of a small daily improvement over the next 40 or so years will generate legendary results.

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JBP4USV: Executing Excellence

As part of my quest to become the next Analyst at USV, I’ve started this campaign JBP 4 USV to provide the world (read USV) with some insight to the hard coding in my brain that makes me tick — the skills and differentiators that make me the ideal candidate.

“Executing Excellence”

(All of my images are created using Canvas because, well, you get it)

I am 50% German. I am not sure that it has anything to do with my personality, but my Grandma tells me that it makes me stubborn. By definition, I love the first part of its meaning -- "having or showing dogged determination." As for the rest of the definition, well, I am normally very open, but sometimes when you're right, you're right :)

The reason I bring up this determination and stubbornness is that there are many times were I become obsessed with completing something or getting something done. I am absolutely a no excuses person. When something needs to get done and its the top priority, watch out.

One of the classics by Mark Suster - JFDI - says it best:

"Sometimes you need to break some eggs to get things done so if that's what it takes I wanted my team to go for it..."

There are times to be diplomatic about things, and I am all for that. I will exhaust every resource and option available to get things done in orderly and peaceful fashion. But if something is important enough and there are roadblocks in the way, I've been known to ruffle some feathers and tear down some walls. It's nothing personal and I think people realize that.

The only way to push the envelop of the impossible is to constantly try new doors, find new approaches, get your hands dirty, and sometimes border that point where persistency becomes a little annoying. Call me crazy, but I prefer execution to excuses every day of the week.

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JBP4USV: Recognizing Talent

As part of my quest to become the next Analyst at USV, I’ve started this campaign JBP 4 USV to provide the world (read USV) with some insight to the hard coding in my brain that makes me tick — the skills and differentiators that make me the ideal candidate.

“Recognizing Talent”

As with anything we do in life, practice makes perfect. The ability to recognize talent is no different. And there is no question that recognizing talent is a key skillset of a successful analyst at a VC firm.

The USV team has access to the best deals and entrepreneurs, and obviously they prefer to invest in these deals. But the reality is (and according to their own post) there is always going to be a significant portion of deals with first time entrepreneurs. And with first timers, the people and team are more important than the idea and product. This is where it's absolutely critical to recognize true talent from the pretenders.

I've worked for an international bank leading teams on multi-billion dollar projects. I became the go-to problem solver for failing projects, so I would have resources and people thrown at me from all angles to get things done. With a steady rotation of projects and people, I became quite competent at identifying the talent in very short time frames.

I've also been working on a startup of my own for the last 6 months and much of this time has consisted of searching for a talented technical co-founder (a common problem for us non-brogrammers). Speaking with countless developers and interviewing many, I've certainly put in my time at the free throw line.

There's also a natural instinct to it that I attribute to my attempt to surround myself with talent, study human psychology, and be a passionate people watcher :)

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JBP4USV: Hustling Hard

As part of my quest to become the next Analyst at USV, I’ve started this campaign JBP 4 USV to provide the world (read USV) with some insight to the hard coding in my brain that makes me tick — the skills and differentiators that make me the ideal candidate.

“Hustling Hard”

(All of my images are created using Canvas because, well, you get it)

I thought I knew what it meant to work hard and hustle back when I was working on high profile projects for an international bank. Sure I'd put in a few 14 hour days a week, work some Saturdays here and there, first one in the office / last one out. But that was comparing myself to the 9 - 5 crowd.

Then I was introduced to the world of startups. Then I realized what it really meant to hustle.

I became inspired by famous hustlers like @garyvee and locally famous NYC hustlers like @reecepacheco at Shelby.tv and @johnexley interning at hashable.com. I was mostly exposed to their hustling tendencies through Twitter and Tumblr and some in-person interactions as well. Love internet powered inspiration.

These guys showed me the light and helped me bring my hustle to a whole new level -a level I am constantly pushing higher every day.

There aren't many things in this world that we can directly control. Our effort is most certainly one of them. It's easy to say I will work harder than anyone else out there (which I will), but it's another thing to live it. I watch this every morning when I wake up (thanks to @onshelby for discovery) and take that approach to everything I do.

I can promise you one thing: if I am not selected for this position at USV, it will not be because of a lack of hustle.

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JBP4USV: Envisioning the Future

As part of my quest to become the next Analyst at USV, I’ve started this campaign JBP 4 USV to provide the world (read USV) with some insight to the hard coding in my brain that makes me tick — the skills and differentiators that make me the ideal candidate.

"Envisioning the Future"

(All of my images are created using Canvas because, well, you get it)

For as long as I can remember, I have been solving problems and coming up with creative solutions for things in my life that needed fixing.

As a five year old, I had to figure out the inputs and outputs on a TV so I could get my Nintendo to work and built bridges across creeks in the woods out of fallen trees so we find the hidden treasure on the other side.

As I got older, I started tackling bigger problems like developing ridiculous inventions to fund my retirement and inventing drinking games out of random objects readily available in our dorm rooms.

Now I have a long list of (much more practical?) ideas and inventions just waiting in the weeds.

Inventing and solving problems is fun, but it's the ability see how the pieces come together and envision the future that I take pride in. Thinking through use case scenarios, key features, potential roadblocks, and market opportunity is an invaluable skillset that I am constantly developing and improving.

These skills come in handy when speaking with entrepreneurs about their startups and ideas and are no doubt invaluable for an analyst at a VC firm.

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JBP4USV: Building Relationships

As part of my quest to become the next Analyst at USV, I've started this campaign JBP 4 USV to provide the world (read USV) with some insight to the hard coding in my brain that makes me tick -- the skills and differentiators that make me the ideal candidate.

"Building Relationships"

(All of my images are created using Canvas because, well, you get it)

There’s no doubt that building amazing relationships is absolutely critical in the VC world (and in almost any business for that matter). Deals don’t get done after a first introduction. Mark Suster put it best “Invest in Lines, not Dots.” That being said, networking and building relationships has been the main focus of my life for the last several years.

When I joined Edward Jones as a financial advisor, I was literally trained for weeks on how to build relationships and network effectively. Being a financial advisor and then later opening up my own Wealth Management company, you live and die by the relationships you build. And when your paycheck depends on it, you learn fast :)

I know this is going a little crazy, but the key for me in building successful relationships is that I ACTUALLY GIVE A SHIT. At some point when trying to figure out what is most important to me, I developed this passionate desire to genuinely want to help others (why I’ve been building Candle Mentors - an online mentoring network).

This genuine desire to help others, especially when it comes to startups and building awesome products and companies, is very hard to fake. It is my secret weapon, and I plan to continue using it every chance I can.

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This is the exclusive leaked video footage (Part 2) of John Petersen’s video application for the analyst position at USV as he talks about what things in web and mobile make him warm and fuzzy inside.

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This is the exclusive leaked video footage (Part 1) of John Petersen's video application for the analyst position at USV as he pours his heart out about why he wants the position.

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"JBP 4 USV"

So, I submitted my application for the analyst position at Union Square Ventures, but I never really had the chance to explain why I am the best person for this position. So, thanks to the power of Tumblr, I have created this blog "JBP 4 USV" as my campaign headquarters.

It may turn out that all of this information may be inadmissible in court and the USV team won't consider any of this, but that sure won't stop me from trying.

The interview process closes on October 13th, so for the next 7 days you can expect more posts and videos to solidify the case for JBP 4 USV!