With Elon Musk’s acquisition, Twitter has been making headlines over the past couple of weeks in both the startup and mainstream news cycles. The controversy around free speech means it can be difficult to cut through the geopolitical noise on the social media platform, but Twitter has quietly (and not so quietly) grown to become one of the central hubs of information and knowledge sharing for the startup ecosystem over the last few years.
Sharing everything from fundraising tips and advice to insights into their own jobs, products, and lives, the venture capitalists, CEOs, and writers that make up this VC Twitter list are accounts to follow if you’re an early-stage founder wanting to feel the pulse of the ecosystem from within the world’s largest town hall. Here’s who to follow.
1. Ryan Breslow
The founder and CEO of Bolt made headlines at the beginning of this year when he divulged his opinion in a fiery Twitter thread that YCombinator functions as mob bosses in Silicon Valley. Coming from such a successful figure in the startup world, his claims were bold and reverberated throughout the whole community. One-by-one he laid out 5 “beliefs” that founders have about YC. And one-by-one he debunked the myths with his personal experience and offered better advice to those seeking funding.
That’s a core reason to keep an eye on his feed. Not only does he give short, valuable advice to founders, but he also goes on the occasional lengthy thread with more of the same. And he’s not afraid to call out “monopolistic bullshit” in the ecosystem either.
The Best Thread: Breslow took everything he learned in business and compiled all of his advice threads in one place. Learn about why Bolt made the 4-day work week permanent, other accounts he learns from the most, how to build a sales team, megatrends, and more.
Elon Takeover Take: Retweeted the following. Seems down with it.
2. Dan Primack
The business editor at Axios who covers the world of dealmakers across VC, PE, and M&A is one to follow for a Twitter dive into extensive news coverage from all three industries. Known for providing depth and complexity to content, it’s no surprise that his page over the past few weeks has been concerned with Twitter Takeover news and fallout. Not only has he been a talking head on the matter, but the rest of his feed also provides real-time industry news and short-but-sweet articles on all the above.
This serves as a great reminder that his Pro Rata newsletter is the perfect one-stop-shop for deals and fundraising announcements on a daily basis. The more in the know you are about what’s going on, the better off you’ll be in the long run.
Best Thread: His complete, journalistic coverage of the Elon Twitter ongoings is highly insightful and concrete.
Elon Takeover Take: See above.
3. Sahil Bloom
Another big name in VC Twitter, Bloom is the Managing Partner of SRB Ventures, host of the Where it Happens Podcast, and active Twitter user predominately giving out “live your best life” advice alongside investment announcements, hiring news, and other opportunities for startups. His daily inputs on growth and productivity are insightful rather than sanctimonious, and if you want a deeper dive, check out his newsletters.
If you’re not a “daily inbox” person, we recommend his weekly Wednesday/Friday emails. Each Wednesday, The Curiosity Chronicle covers “curiosity-inducing content and educational pieces” along with job opportunities. The Friday Five edition includes one of each of the following: a quote, framework, tweet, article, and podcast.
Best Thread: His recent 20 ideas I can’t stop thinking about thread is a great summation of what you can expect from his overall feed. These 20 principles, paradoxes, and effects are meant to push your boundaries and make you think.
Elon Takeover Take: Updated a tweet he made prior to the official news pondering if the actual acquisition of Twitter would be “fun” enough for Musk. Turns out it doesn’t have to be.
4. Madison Campbell
This CEO is improving life and the world, sharing interesting fundraising opportunities, and making you laugh a little along the way. Campbell’s company, Leda Health, empowers survivors of sexual assault and hopes to revolutionize the ways in which sexual assault is handled on a holistic scale. While her Twitter feed shares insights into the company, she does a great job at promoting fundraising and job opportunities from within her network. See one of the most recent examples.
Amongst the company updates and promotions, Campbell offers witty one-liners and insights into what it’s like being a female founder in tech.
Best Tweet: It’s hard to choose just one. Her funny tweets are clever, and her insightful ones make you want to yell for change.
Elon Takeover Take: Non-existent.
5. Matt Turck
Matt Turk is a venture capitalist from FirstMarket Capital, an early-stage venture fund in NYC, and while he doesn’t specialize in startup advice, he has a feed that sums up the life of a VC. He’s a blogger as well, mostly doing interviews with people from the crypto, blockchain, AI, and data industries and the organizer of Data Driven NYC, so his 2021 Machine Learning, AI, and Data Landscape is a work of art if that’s your specialty.
While he shares random insights into his VC life throughout his feed, his VC memes are the most liked. It’s always good to get a peek behind the VC curtain, and it’s a solid place to go for a laugh.
Best Tweets: One of his most popular memes. A thread about the Great VC Pullback of 2022. And a special mention for his blog post about the daily routine of a VC.
Elon Takeover Take: Non-existent.
6. Jack Altman
The CEO of Lattice, a people management platform that empowers leaders to build engaged, high-performing teams, has a great feed for founder advice. Particularly when it comes to your team and hiring. Seeing as his company is the leading people success platform, his advice is most valuable when it comes to your people strategy.
Some of his most popular takes include people who crush it after a few years into a job, what else we are doing just because everyone else is, and the best career advice he ever got.
Best Thread: It might not be the most advice-laden thread, but when he announced Lattice’s Invest in Your People Fund, it proved that a company can and should put its money where its values are.
Elon Takeover Take: Non-existent
7. Aaron Levie
The CEO of Box has a feed full of clever commentary on daily life and Box product updates, but whenever he drops advice, it’s always innately valuable. For example, a month before his Elon Takeover jabs (“If you’re the richest person in the world and not doing hostile takeovers, what’s even the point.”), Levie dropped this piece of startup advice regarding prioritizing customer needs.
Other greats of his include the importance of cash flow, a top 5 startup advice flow, speed as the biggest advantage, and another itemized list of startup advice in wild times.
Best Tweet: Although it’s not coming from Levie himself, he posted this throwback video with advice that every founder should remember.
Elon Takeover Take: Hilariously trolling, but in the mindset that “No matter what Twitter does, we’re going to complain about it.”
As with all things on the platform, VC Twitter interactions tend to be quick, loud, and opinionated, but if you’re active enough, you’ll find valuable information coming from some key industry players. Whether you gain fundraising tips, founder advice, or hilarious takes on industry gossip, we hope you enjoy following the feeds above. And let us know who you think could be added to the venerable list.
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