- Nichole Wischoff worked at Citi for a year before leaving for the startup world.
- Wischoff said that even though she made a lot of money in banking, she didn’t love her job.
- Working with startups was a better match for her personality, she says.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nichole Wischoff, 34, founder of Wischoff Ventures. The following has been edited for length and clarity. Business Insider previously published essays about her first recruit at Wischoff Ventures, Neal Mintz, and his hiring experience.
I picked up running while on a high school student exchange in Belgium.
Running taught me a lot. For one, there are no short-term wins in running. If you want to finish a marathon, you need to put in a lot of super-consistent work to build up your mileage.
Running taught me to keep chipping away at the things that I really want. There’s no such thing as short-term success when building your career. But one thing’s for sure — if you are willing to put in the work every day, you will see results over time.
Getting into but not enjoying banking
Before I entered the startup world, I worked on project finance at Citi Community Capital, an arm of Citi that deals with community development lending and investing.
Even though I made a lot of money in banking, I didn’t enjoy working there.
To be sure, I loved the work itself. It was challenging and super interesting, but I felt suffocated in that environment. But I felt like I was chained to my desk for 14 to 16 hours a day, working continuously and skipping lunch breaks.
Entering the world of startups and venture capital
Fortunately, because I was based in the Bay Area, I was able to make friends in tech and learn more about their careers.
My then-boyfriend, now husband, worked in tech and he encouraged me to give tech a shot.
When I was recruited by my first tech company, a fintech company named Blend, he helped me negotiate the offer. I ended up getting roughly 40% more than what I was making in banking.
After accumulating years of experience in the startup world, I started making angel investments in startups.
Eventually, I started my early-stage venture capital firm, Wischoff Ventures.
I know that I’m not meant for the boardroom
Looking back at my career, I would say that working with and in startups was a good match for my personality. Startups allow you to do as much as you possibly want until you can’t take it anymore.
In contrast, your role will be very structured and defined if you work in a big corporate company. There won’t be a lot of flexibility. You will be given three to five objectives, and you need to hit them.
In startups, you get to do a lot of things. You can dabble in business development, product management, and fundraising. I enjoy having variety in my work.
I know, too, that I’m not meant for the boardroom. Even now, as a VC, I don’t take board seats because I don’t find them to be very interesting or useful. What I want is to help get companies off the ground. I don’t want to manage hundreds of employees or report to tons of people.
Of course, I do get really bad days in venture capital now and then. But I have stuck on it because I love the adrenaline of clinching a deal. It could be an addiction, but I love momentum and knowing that I’m making progress every single day.
The truth is, you have to be crazy to raise a venture capital fund. You need to make hundreds of pitches and stomach the rejections.
It is a lot like running a marathon. You have to put in the work every day, and it’s not sexy. That’s what it takes to make it as a VC. You have to like pain and doing hard things.
