In the past, venture capital was a business built on access.

Today, it’s a business built on attention.

The elite firms of the next decade won’t just have better deal flow or better networks.

They’ll win because they build belief—at scale, with precision, and with the same skill a media company uses to launch a global brand.

Simply put:

The next legendary VC firm will operate more like a modern media company than a traditional investment partnership.

And the firms that realize this shift earliest will dominate the market for founders, capital, and mindshare.

Here’s why the model is changing—and what it means for how smart firms are thinking about content right now.

The Old Model: Whisper Networks and Reputation

Historically, VC was a relationship business.

• Deals were sourced through tight personal networks.

• Reputation traveled through private conversations.

• The firm’s brand was whatever LPs, founders, and other investors happened to say about them behind closed doors.

In that world, public content was optional.

A nice-to-have. A box to check.

The New Model: Always-On Distribution and Narrative Power

Today, founders don’t wait for whispered recommendations.

They search. They follow. They listen.

Before they ever take a first meeting, they already know:

• How you think about their sector

• What kinds of founders you respect

• What kind of partner you’ll be

Your public content is your reputation now.

It’s not secondary to the work of investing—it’s an inseparable part of how deals are won or lost.

And in a world of infinite noise, founders don’t just pick capital.

They pick the ideas they want to bet their careers on.

What a Media-Company VC Firm Actually Looks Like

Building a firm like a media company doesn’t just mean launching a podcast or tweeting more.

It means thinking like a newsroom about your entire platform:

1. You Develop a Sharp Editorial Perspective

• Great media companies have a distinct point of view.

• Great VC firms need one too.

  Not “we invest in great founders building big markets.”

  But a true editorial stance on how the world is changing—and why you’re betting your time and money accordingly.

✅ Example:

Instead of a bland “we invest in fintech” position, you have a specific thesis like:

“We believe embedded finance will reshape the unit economics of every SaaS vertical by 2028—and here’s the data that convinced us.”

2. You Build Repeatable Content Machines

• Great media companies aren’t guessing what to publish every week.

• They have repeatable formats that build brand consistency.

✅ Example:

You create an “Insight Series” that breaks down early signs of breakout PMF across your core sectors—publishing one deep dive every quarter.

Founders start looking forward to your analysis like clockwork.

3. You Prioritize Storytelling Over Announcements

• Most VC content today sounds like a corporate press release.

• Great media companies know: humans remember stories, not bullet points.

✅ Example:

Instead of announcing a new investment with a canned quote, you tell the origin story of the founder, the market insight that drove your conviction, and what you saw that others missed.

4. You Treat Founders Like Your Audience, Not Just Deal Flow

• Media companies build loyalty by serving their audience relentlessly.

• Great VCs will win by treating founders the same way.

✅ Example:

You invest time in building sector-specific resource libraries, founder playbooks, and micro-communities—not because it’s marketing, but because it makes the right people want to work with you.

5. You Think in Multi-Format, Evergreen Assets

• Media companies don’t rely on one channel.

• The best firms will create foundational content—research, frameworks, tools—that remain valuable for years.

✅ Example:

Instead of chasing the news cycle, you publish a definitive benchmark report or a technical hiring guide founders refer to year after year.

Who’s Already Doing It

The most forward-looking investors aren’t just participating in media—they’re treating it as a foundational part of firm-building.

Harry Stebbings built Twenty Minute VC into one of the most influential media properties in venture capital before ever raising his own fund. Hunter Walk at Homebrew has long treated blogging not as marketing but as a core part of firm-building—using public writing to attract aligned founders and shape markets. Tom Tunguz, now at Theory Ventures, has spent more than a decade creating data-driven content that consistently defines how operators and investors think about SaaS growth.

And beyond fund managers, emerging voices like Molly O’Shea are building media-first personal brands around VC analysis, showing that attention and trust can precede firm formation itself.

Why This Approach Wins

Attention compounds.

The firms investing in media-grade content today are building advantages that will only widen over time:

• In Deal Flow: Founders will seek you out before they even need to fundraise.

• In LP Relationships: Your ability to tell a differentiated story will make fundraising faster and more efficient.

• In Strategic Influence: You’ll shape how entire markets are understood, not just which startups get funded.

In a market where everyone has money, the firms that control the narrative control the future.

Looking Forward

If you were starting a new VC firm today, how would you build it like a media company from day one?

What storytelling investments would you prioritize first?

Reply to this email—I’d love to hear how you’re thinking about this shift, and I may feature some of your perspectives in an upcoming issue.

Because in this new era, it’s not enough to bet on the next great startup.

You have to tell a story great founders want to be part of.