How to Hire for Your First VC Platform Role
As more venture capital firms look beyond just writing checks, the “platform” role has become a must-have on many teams. In fact, according to a 2023 survey by First Republic Bank, over 75% of US VC firms with more than $250M AUM now have at least one dedicated platform professional—a figure that’s doubled in the last five years. But for funds making their first platform hire, the process can feel confusing and risky. What exactly should you be looking for? How do you avoid a mismatch when your fund’s needs and culture are so unique? And why has this role become so crucial as the VC space evolves?
If you’re considering hiring your very first platform team member, you’re not alone—and you’re asking the right questions. In this guide, we’ll walk through what a VC platform role actually does, how to figure out what your fund needs, and the steps you can take to make sure your new hire sets your firm and your portfolio up for success.
Zeroing In: What a VC Platform Role Actually Encompasses
Key responsibilities and variations
A VC platform role is more than event planning or founder support—it’s the connective tissue between your portfolio companies, your investment team, and the wider startup ecosystem. The reality? The spectrum of “platform” looks different in every fund. Some roles zero in on talent: helping founders fill crucial hires, setting up job boards, hosting recruiting jams. Others dive into ecosystems: matching founders with mentors, organizing peer roundtables, crafting playbooks, or forging introductions that land game-changing customers.
Many platform pros find themselves building founder resources—legal templates, guides, culture decks—or spinning up slick newsletters that stitch the portfolio together. Even operations pop up: streamlining communications, managing event budgets, or hunting down the right CRM. The role’s flavor shifts with the stage and style of your fund, the maturity of your portfolio, and the quirks of your investment focus.
What value looks like in action
You’ll feel a quality platform hire’s impact fast. Founders start approaching you—not just for capital, but for guidance, connections, and second opinions. Your inbox fills with thank-yous for untangling a hiring jam, winning a first big customer, or demystifying a thorny compliance issue. A great platform lead doesn’t just cheer from the sidelines; they roll up their sleeves, spark collaboration across the portfolio, and keep your VC brand sharp in a noisy landscape.
Before you even draft a job description or post a listing, the most savvy VCs look inward first. Now, let’s get practical about how to spot the blind spots in your own firm and pinpoint the platform skills that will unlock real leverage.
Identifying Your Fund’s Real Needs Before Hiring
Under-the-surface portfolio pain points
Before you even think about job titles or qualifications, step back and study the friction points in your portfolio. Where do founders actually ask for help? Have you noticed a pattern of missed sales targets, repeated hiring stumbles, or a regular scramble for follow-on financing? These are signals hiding beneath the surface—areas that generate support requests, churn, or quiet frustration but may not surface in generic founder surveys.
Also, audit your anti-patterns. Are there initiatives you tried to launch—like mentorship programs or community events—that fizzled due to lack of traction or bandwidth? These missed opportunities can reveal where a platform hire could make the most difference.
Mapping platform functions to strategy
Once you’ve surfaced these gaps, link them directly to your fund’s unique mix of strengths and ambitions. Is your edge based on insider introductions, practical operator know-how, or guiding founders through fundraising? Resist the urge to copy-and-paste platform responsibilities from larger funds or online job boards. Instead, list the places where a dedicated team member could turn sporadic, founder-driven success into repeatable value for your portfolio.
Be honest about your limitations—budget, time, and seniority. Will this person run hands-on programming, spin up new founder resources, or build an expert network? Narrowing the “why” behind your hire will sharpen your job description, help you measure impact, and set both you and your new team member up for a meaningful start.
When you’ve mapped the pain points and strategic levers, you’re ready to decide which areas should remain owned by your core team—and which can genuinely be driven forward by your new hire.
With clarity around your fund’s needs, the next step is to define the focus and priorities for your first platform hire—so you set the stage for both immediate impact and long-term value.
Choosing the Right Focus for Your First Platform Hire
What not to outsource
Some duties at a venture fund can be handed off to agencies, lawyers, or consultants. The heart of your platform hire is different. Anything that shapes portfolio experience, drives community, or builds internal knowledge should remain in-house. When you’re just starting out, this includes supporting founders with tailored resources, collecting intel on portfolio needs, orchestrating events that carry your fund’s ethos, and keeping a pulse on founder sentiment. If you outsource these, you lose the nuanced context and relationships—your most valuable currency.
Must-have vs. nice-to-have skillsets
Resist the urge to find a unicorn who can do it all. Instead, weigh what’s foundational for your fund’s current stage. If your partners crave more founder touchpoints, prioritize relationship management. Meanwhile, if your startups are asking for more connections and shared learning, hunt for someone who excels in network building or resource curation. Technical prowess, advanced content creation, or brand storytelling can wait—unless they directly unlock key opportunities on your immediate roadmap.
Your priorities might shift as your fund grows, but getting this first hire right ensures you lay down a platform culture that’s both intentional and adaptable. Next, let’s talk tactical: how do you turn these focus areas into a job description that attracts the right kind of builder?
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Ready to transform your fund’s impact but circumnavigating the maze of platform hiring feels daunting? You’re not alone. Plenty of first-time platform hires fall flat—not because there’s a shortage of smart candidates, but because the core needs weren’t mapped out before the role hit the market. Getting it right the first time can be the difference between elevating your brand as a partner or getting mired in tactical noise.
Still with us? Good. Let’s translate clarity into action and craft a job description that turns the best-fit candidates’ heads.
[CTA-HOOK]Creating a Targeted and Compelling Job Description
Role scope and reporting lines
A strong job description starts with specificity. Define exactly how this platform role will operate within your VC fund. Highlight whether the hire will be the sole platform lead, part of a small team, or reporting to a particular partner. Spell out the areas they’ll own—is it portfolio support, brand initiatives, events, or talent across your startups? Clarity here helps both you and candidates avoid mismatched expectations down the line.
Name who the hire will work with most. Will they have direct visibility with General Partners? Collaborate often with investment teams? Support founders one-on-one? Draw the reporting lines, both for transparency and so candidates understand the relationships they’ll foster.
Attracting best-fit candidates
Resist the urge to use a generic list of buzzwords and responsibilities. Instead, pose the real-world challenges they’ll tackle in your fund’s unique environment—for example, “launching scalable founder education” or “building quarterly community programming from scratch.” Describe the quirks of your investment focus, or culture, that make your team distinctly appealing to someone who shares your values and ambitions.
Capture attention with elements that speak to mission, ownership, and real impact. People attracted to platform roles crave agency and the chance to shape a fund’s trajectory. Make it clear how this new hire can put their stamp on your portfolio’s success, not just fill a template. Mention tools, autonomy, and support they’ll have—not just what’s required of them, but what they’ll get to create.
Now that you’ve crafted a description to attract the right talent, it’s time to ensure your interview process actually identifies those who can turn vision into results.
Navigating the Interview Process with Purpose
Interview questions that reveal impact potential
Instead of recycling standard icebreaker questions, focus your interviews on uncovering how candidates have driven results and weathered ambiguity. Ask for specific examples of stepping into undefined roles. For instance: “Can you describe a solution you built from scratch that made a measurable difference?” or “Tell us about a time you uncovered an unexpected need in your organization and designed a response.” Explore portfolio-facing moments. “How did you help a founder overcome a unique obstacle?” or “What’s your process for bridging connections that turn into genuine value for startups?” These prompts move the conversation past a candidate’s background and toward their capacity for real-world, practical impact.
Assessing platform mindset over resume
VC platform work demands resourcefulness and comfort with the unknown, so it’s essential to probe beyond titles and bullet points. Look for signs of owner-mentality: Did this person spot gaps and propose fixes ahead of being asked? Are they naturally inclined to curate networks, connect people, or build repeatable processes? Give scenarios that simulate life at your fund: “You notice portfolio companies are struggling with early hires. How would you design a support initiative?” Instead of “culture fit,” tune into adaptability — does the candidate’s body language and response show enthusiasm for operating in flux, or do they default to familiar scripts? Pay attention to humility and curiosity, traits that will help them thrive in an evolving role.
The quality of your interview process sets the stage for everything to follow—by selecting for curiosity, grit, and creativity, you stack the odds in favor of a productive partnership. Up next, we’ll explore how to ensure your new hire quickly translates their promise into real wins for your fund and founders.
Setting Up Your Platform Hire for Early Wins
Alignment on outcomes from day one
Before your hire even starts, sit down and decide what “success” looks like three months in. Skip abstract goals like “drive value for portfolio” and get specific. Do you want the new hire to fully launch a founder onboarding playbook? Establish a reporting rhythm with portfolio companies? Set up the first event or resource library?
Share these expectations clearly in the first week. Don’t assume your new platform teammate knows what you’re envisioning—they may have seen very different definitions of “impact” at other funds. Ask for input and let them shape the roadmap, but start with your most pressing needs front and center.
Quick-start onboarding checklist
Avoid the slow, meandering start that often plagues first-time platform hires. Instead, hand off a punchy, concrete checklist to set the pace. Items should include:
Set weekly check-ins during the first month to keep up the cadence, unblock any snags, and recalibrate priorities. Your quick action here accelerates their learning curve and builds trust from the outset.
Once your new platform hire is set up for a running start, it’s time to turn to how you’ll keep them on track through thoughtful feedback and intentional communication. That way, early wins can compound into lasting impact.