Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance is perhaps best known for his 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” which was widely hailed as an intimate portrait of rural, working-class resentment that helped put Donald Trump in the White House. The selection of Vance, who the former President announced as his running mate on Monday at the Republican National Convention, however, could benefit the world of venture capital, where the populist Ohio senator spent most of his professional career before heading into politics.
Vance is the first former venture capitalist on a major party ticket since Mitt Romney, who lost the presidential race to Barack Obama in 2012. Vance’s footprint in the VC space, however, is not extensive and mostly tied to his association with his biggest backer, Peter Thiel.
Vance’s VC career begins with Thiel, Silicon Valley
Trump’s choice drew praise from Elon Musk, as well as Vance’s former partner, Colin Greenspon. Vance and Greenspon co-founded Cincinnati-based Narya Ventures in 2020.
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TRUMP
VANCE
–––––––Resounds with victory
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 15, 2024
“When I first met JD almost 10 years ago, I knew that he was a man of exceptional drive and intellect,” Greenspon said in a statement. “Our friendship and business partnership over time has thrived because of those qualities. While we were sad to see him move on from Narya in [2022], it was bittersweet because we knew he had a higher calling to serve our country and today’s news only further cements his position as an American leader.”
A former Marine and Yale Law School graduate, Vance started his VC career as a junior investor at Mithril Capital, a Silicon Valley firm founded by Thiel. In 2017, following a two-year stint, he joined Revolution, a Washington D.C.-based firm co-founded by former AOL chairman Steve Case. Vance served as managing partner of Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, a $150 million early-stage fund aimed at supporting startups outside traditional VC ecosystems like Silicon Valley, New York and Massachusetts.
The real grade for JD Vance as a VC/tech investor is: Incomplete due to wanderlust
He was a junior invstor at Mithril for just 2 years. Then left Revolution after two years. Then left Narya after two years to run for Senate.
— Dan Primack (@danprimack) July 15, 2024
Vance and Greenspon then struck out on their own to co-found Narya, raising over $93 million from several big-name investors, including Thiel and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. The firm was an early backer of AppHarvest, a Kentucky-based indoor tomato-grower, the only board Vance served on as a venture capitalist, per Axios’ Dan Primack. (AppHarvest went bankrupt in 2023, two years after Vance left the board to run for Senate shortly after it had gone public via SPAC).
Reconciling Big Tech criticism with VC roots
When Vance sought Trump’s counsel before announcing his Senate run in 2021, Thiel reportedly accompanied him to Mar-a-Lago. As Axios noted at the time, Vance faces a challenge reconciling his populist rhetoric and VC roots. He’s been an avid critic of Big Tech, for example, though his backers at Narya included Schmidt and two directors at Facebook.
Establishment Republican apologies for our oligarchy should always come with the following disclaimer: “Big Tech pays my salary.”
— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) April 13, 2021
The 39-year-old Vance is the first millennial on a major party ticket, but he joins a long line of presidential and VP nominees who previously made their career in business. George W. Bush, who graduated from Harvard Business School before becoming an oilman like his father (George H.W. Bush, the 41st president), remains the only American president to have earned an MBA.
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Greg McKenna
