The Power of Language

In the venture capital industry, there are so many “buzzwords”. Almost all of them can be found on Twitter with a hashtag attached: #blockchain, #ai, #futureofwork. These shortcuts are helpful to manage the overwhelming amount of “new, exciting ideas.”

VCs try to put these buzzwords on products and ideas in order to group their thinking. If something is in a specific buzzword category, you can quickly come up to speed on the market, KPIs — basically, the things that matter. If something is outside of that category, it takes a more time to understand the entire diligence process.

This can lead to the known buzzword > the unknown unique idea.

This is disconcerting for a number of reasons — including the confirmation bias effect, and the creation of herd mentalities. Unfortunately, I have seen this trickle down to entrepreneurs who are looking to hire quickly and exclusively look at candidates who have previous experience in similar companies with buzzwords they can understand.

The biggest downside of doing this is you miss out on swaths of the population who could:

1. Be uniquely qualified for these opportunities and,
2. Bring with them a level of critical thinking that often comes with having perspectives across industries.

I wanted to create a thesaurus translating public sector experiences to private sector buzzwords

As a veteran of the public sector myself, I know that my transition to the private sector was made infinitely easier when I figured out how to talk about my past in language that private sector people understood.

The main audience for this includes:

1. Entrepreneurs who are looking at candidates and don’t know how to decipher their background.

2. Public sector candidates looking to make the switch and exploring ways to talk about their experiences

3. And, to help inform the public about how to interpret similar work done across industries who use different vernacular or “buzzwords”.

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Development/Gifts (i.e. Chief Development Officer)

What does this mean? This person has a history in fundraising across multiple stakeholders — foundations, HNIs, and private companies.

How does it translate? Business development or growth hacking

Outreach (i.e. Public Outreach Associate)

What does this mean? This person has a history in managing a brand.

How does it translate? Marketing, product marketing or content strategy

Program (i.e. Program Assistant)

What does this mean? This person has a history in managing cross-functional teams.

How does it translate? Analyst, business operations, project management

Membership/Volunteer (i.e Membership Coordinator)

What does this mean? This person has a history of building communities.

How does it translate? Customer success

Social (i.e. Social Worker)

What does this mean? This person has a history in developing a deep understanding of their clients needs and providing them with support to address these needs.

How does it translate? Therapist, venture capitalist ( ?)

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I hope this helps! Are there other experiences I should include? Let me know by leaving a note below or e-mailing me at sydney@precursorvc.com.