To solve a problem well, you must understand the problem deeply. Jermaine dug deep and interviewed academics, emerging and established fund managers, founders, and a variety of limited partners in VC funds.
This discovery process, and more, helped form the basis of Nulla’s thesis:
Matching
Matching is critical to early founder success. Getting matched to capital, know-how, and people can be the difference between success and failure. Founders live and die by the adage, the right conversation can change your life.
What drives this matching process?
Networks
If you think about how matching happens, it’s driven by networks. Founders must know the right people to get matched to what they need.
How are networks formed?
Homophily
Homophily is a social principle. It states that contact between similar people occurs at a higher frequency than among dissimilar people. The frequency of interaction is how networks form. It also means that information will be localized to a network. Note: What’s the most common form of homophily? Geography.
How does homophily impact matching?
Network Distance
Network distance is the number of relationships through which a piece of information must travel to connect two individuals.
Homophily reinforces dissimilarity. Dissimilarity translates into network distance. Network distance slows or prevents the matching process.
