How did a 23-year-old Chinese woman go from intern to a16z partner in just one year after dropping out of Harvard?

Source: Businessinsider

Compiled by: Shenchao TechFlow

In Silicon Valley, there is a saying:

Silicon Valley VC practitioners eventually all join a16z as partners.

Compared to other VCs, a16z operates more like a large company, with more frequent hiring and promotion of partners, which provides numerous opportunities for young people. This year, a16z welcomed what can be said to be its youngest partner (Deal Partner) in history, a 23-year-old Chinese woman who rose from intern to partner in just one year.

How did she do it? Today, we share an article from INSIDER, the crypto journey of Harvard dropout Carra Wu.

Carra Wu is a Harvard University dropout. At the end of 2020, she was about to finish her internship at Apple and was weighing her future job options.

She could choose to work at Apple, return to school, or join a startup… Her experiences at tech giants like Apple and Microsoft became stepping stones for her future career choices.

On a whim, Carra Wu sent an email to Arianna Simpson. Arianna Simpson is a venture capitalist at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and a crypto partner. Carra Wu admired her and expressed her intentions in six sentences, asking how she could get involved in the crypto field.

It was this spontaneous email that changed Carra Wu's career.

This is a story of an ambitious girl in her twenties creating her unique path in the face of an uncertain future.

In March 2021, Carra Wu landed an internship at a16z, a VC that understands the crypto market better than any of its competitors and has a dedicated $9 billion crypto fund. A few months later, the company promoted her to a deal analyst, and by her one-year anniversary, she had risen to become a Deal Partner—making her the youngest check signer in the company and a rising star in the crypto investment world.

At just 23 years old, Carra Wu already has the financial backing and strength of a16z. She helped lead investments in popular crypto startups, such as the crypto social club Friends With Benefits; an online game where players collect virtual pets, Axie Infinity; and a guild that allows players to earn real money through gaming, Yield Guild Games.

The emerging crypto industry is fertile ground for investors, providing rare opportunities for young investors on the internet. Some young people have been hired by VCs like a16z, Sequoia, NFX, and Paradigm for junior positions, as these companies need people to make calls, find startups, and invest their billions of dollars in crypto funds.

If all goes as planned, these startups may flourish and grow into companies sought after by investors. Young investors who discover these companies can earn profit shares and gain recognition from their peers. In recent years, a significant number of these "wunderkinds" have left large companies to build their own brands and manage their own funds.

A Rocky Journey

Most individual venture capitalists enter the investment circle through one of two paths: founding a successful company and then exiting, or leaving private equity firms or investment banks.

Carra Wu, dressed in a white button-up shirt and blue patterned pants, smiles as she leans against a white fence, recalling her experiences when she started in venture capital. Carra Wu said, "I climbed in through a window."

This is not the first time Carra Wu has taken a leave of absence from Harvard; in fact, she has done it twice.

In 2018, she took her first leave of absence to join a startup analytics company, Apptimize. This company had considered pivoting to crypto technology but failed to do so. The following year, Apptimize was sold to Airship. Carra Wu returned to Harvard to continue her studies and eventually earned degrees in applied mathematics, computer science, and economics.

In 2019, before graduating, Carra Wu became an intern at Microsoft Garage. At this company, any employee has the opportunity to develop their ideas into real-world products. Later, she joined the student team at the Air Force's Kessel Run software factory, responsible for consulting on how to better and faster develop software.

Halfway through the project, the pandemic broke out, and she took another leave of absence. It was during this time that she interned at Apple, participating in the company's video game strategy as an intern.

During this short internship, a struggling colleague gave her some advice.

This colleague told her, "You don't have to know what you're most passionate about in life. You can try many things, find out what you like about each of them, and then gradually immerse yourself in what you truly love."

In 2020, Wu noticed that various bureaucratic processes frustrated some engineers, and she realized she did not want to work at a large tech company like Apple; an emerging industry was calling to her.

From Intern to Partner in One Year

In the first year of the pandemic, the prices and usage rates of Bitcoin and other digital currencies rose, opening up a market. People could shop with tokens, and Carra Wu noticed that the opening of the market attracted new users and brought in a lot of capital, sparking a wave of projects in decentralized finance, consumer goods, art, and gaming.

Thus, she decided to "go all in" on studying crypto technology. At that time, she asked Simpson, the partner at Andreessen Horowitz, if the company would agree to let her intern.

Prior to this, a16z had never hired interns in its crypto team.

"They want to invest in people who will stay here long-term," Carra Wu said.

As part of her job application, Carra Wu wrote an investment memo on Uniswap. Uniswap is a decentralized exchange, and its data is open, allowing Carra Wu to see the company's datasets.

"I wrote code, created a data dashboard, and formed my own opinions," she said.

Finally, Carra got the internship opportunity.

At a16z, she could not only focus on her interests—crypto gaming and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs)—but also interact directly with founders. Simpson later wrote on Twitter that Carra Wu's thirst for knowledge made her unstoppable. Simpson mentioned that she wasn't worried about looking foolish when asking questions.

Thanks to this tenacious spirit, last summer, a16z promoted Wu to deal analyst.

Carra Wu with the BrederDao team

In October of last year, Carra attempted to reach out to a startup and secured her first investment. She knew other investors were also interested in the Pith project. Within hours of seeing the project, Simpson told Carra about a bid, and after finishing dinner, the young investor called the founders.

She encountered a small problem: the two founders of the project stated that they already had other investors participating in this round of financing, leaving only a small portion available.

But Carra Wu knew that a16z would only invest if they could secure a larger share. So she explained this to the founders and pitched the services that a VC like a16z could provide. In the end, the two founders agreed to reduce the allocation for other investors to make room for a16z.

She received hours of training from other partners at the company, which made her feel "fully prepared for this conversation." "For me, that was an important yet terrifying moment," Carra summarized about the conversation.

In March of this year, Carra Wu was promoted again, becoming a deal partner at a16z. However, it is worth noting that a16z tends to exaggerate job titles; a16z's partner is equivalent to a director at another venture capital firm (mid-level).

Although Carra Wu has only worked at a16z for a year, after the company experienced turmoil in December, she may see a shorter path to being promoted to general partner, as Katie Haun left and took some employees with her.

Currently, for Carra Wu, strengthening her network of founders and consolidating the wisdom of her colleagues remains what she wants to do. She says she enjoys being an investor, although she does not rule out other career options.

"As time goes on, I have given up on the idea of making grand plans." In the end, Carra Wu left this remark.