How First Round Created the Most Influential VC Content Ever

We have published breakdowns of YC and a16z's media playbooks. The response was super positive - people want to understand how the best firms use content.

But… both of those examples might feel out of reach.

YC has a unique fund model and built a content operation over 20 years and a full media team. a16z has 30+ media team, now >$500M (?) in management fees, and through acquisitions has assembled all star creators.

If you're a emerging manager, or even a big a fund, that's not your reality.

So today I want to show you something different: How First Round Capital built what might be the most influential VC content publication ever - with a team of ~3 people.

First Round Review launched in 2013 and has since:

• Published ~1000 articles

• Reached millions of readers

• Introduced concepts like "Radical Candor" and PMF frameworks to the world

• Hundreds of thousands of newsletter subs

• Maintained S-tier quality for over a decade (!!)

A small, obsessive team creating one exceptional piece of content at a time.

Let me show you how they did it… and more importantly, what you can steal from their playbook.

Scaling Beyond 1:1

Because investing is at its core relational, every investor faces a scaling problem.

Josh Kopelman (First Round's co-founder) and Howard Morgan both understood the value of sharing knowledge. Before First Round Review existed, they each ran personal blogs. Josh's "Redeye VC" (~2006) and Howard's "Way Too Early" blog.

These created a 1:many relationship - but something was missing.

The insight was Peer-to-peer beats partner-to-founder

They realised that founders learning from other founders was often more valuable than learning from VCs. A founder who just solved a specific hiring problem could help another founder in ways a GP couldn't, their portfolio founders were actually some of their greatest assets to each other.

The first attempt = Events

‘The CEO summit’, networking dinners and bringing portfolio founders together. This worked brilliantly for creating peer connections, but it didn't scale outside of their portfolio.

What if content could create that peer-to-peer effect at scale, was the insight that led to First Round Review in 2013.

Instead of partners writing about their opinions, what if they interviewed exceptional operators and turned those conversations into detailed playbooks other founders could use?

The goal was HBR quality, very granular "here's exactly how X built Y - step by step."

*Fwiw, First Round were also innovate very early with tools and programs you can learn the origins in this 15 year old YouTube vid.

The Editorial Model

When Camille Ricketts joined First Round in 2013 as their first content hire (to run First Round Review), she brought a journalist's discipline to VC content.

Camille developed a rigorous process that became First Round Review's secret weapon:

Tier 1: Get the general insight "What's your approach to hiring?"

Tier 2: Press for the specific how-to "What specific interview questions do you ask? Walk me through your process."

Tier 3: Demand concrete examples "Tell me about a time this worked. What happened?"

This forced every article to move from abstract advice ("hire great people") to granular tactics ("here are the 5 questions I ask in every interview") to proof ("here's how we used this to hire our VP of Eng").

The Quality Bar

From day one, First Round set a rule… Every article must contain at least one piece of advice a reader can implement today.

This is markedly different from thought leadership or thesis posturing, and was laser focused on actionable tactics you can use immediately.

This quality obsession led to articles that became foundational texts in startup culture. E.g… Kim Scott published her framework for giving honest feedback on First Round Review in 2015, - it became "Radical Candor," eventually spawning a bestselling book and entire company. Rahul Vohra's 2018 article on how Superhuman measures product-market fit became the standard methodology founders now use. Molly Graham's metaphor about "giving away your Legos" as you scale is now common vocabulary in management circles.

These pieces were hyper-specific frameworks with names, backed by real examples, condensed into shareable concepts.

The Positioning

FRR’s positioning was actually very bold… Deliberately going deep ~4000 word pieces, when many were optimising for tweet length bits. This positioning allowed both evergreen content to surface and editorial independence (no First Round portfolio promotion).

That last point is crucial. First Round Review also deliberately featured experts from outside their portfolio i.e. showcasing excellence wherever it exists. This is what has also made it so trusted.

Transparency as a Strategy

We bang on about this all the time - the best content is almost always built on unique perspective or unique data. Opinions are everywhere but original data turns content into reference material.

Alongside operator interviews, they began publishing proprietary data drawn directly from their own network. Surveys on founder compensation, equity splits, board composition, hiring timelines, and fundraising mechanics. Not “industry averages” scraped from public sources, but real data from their own companies navigating the same problems their readers were facing.

They then extended that same transparency inward - openly shared how they make investment decisions, portfolio construction, what they look for in pitches, and even mistakes they’d made along the way. That level of openness was rare at the time, and still is. This kind of content gets cited by others, ranks in search, and sticks.

10 Years of Consistency

First Round Review's model has barely changed in 10 years.

Many firms have tinkered and experimented with podcasts, video series, TikTok, Twitter threads, and pivoted constantly, First Round just kept publishing 1-2 exceptional articles per week.

The Cadence

From 2013 to today, 1-2 articles per week, same long-form format, same editorial and tactical focus.

Even as First Round Review became more influential, the team stayed small:

• 2013-2018: Camille Ricketts (Managing Editor) + Shaun Young (Writer) + occasional freelance

• 2018-present: Jessi Shikman (Editor) + Julianna Marchant & Erin VdM (Writers) + Nate Martins (Head of Content)

That's it. Roughly ~3 people producing magazine-quality content weekly for a decade. Compare to a16z's 20-person media team, the small team size is actually an advantage…. When you read FRR, it feels like reading one publication. When you read some VC blogs, it can feel like 10 different voices with inconsistent quality.

The Evolution to Multimedia & Infrastructure

Today First Round has not pivoted away from their core model, but has found ways to multiply its value without diluting quality.

(1) Repackaging & Repurposing

For years, First Round conducted these intensive 1-2 hour interviews to crete the articles. But in 2020, they launched "In Depth," a podcast hosted by Partner Brett Berson.

The same interview that became a 3,000-word article now is also a 60-minute podcast + clips for social distribution. The core remains the same deep practitioner interviews but now they capture more value from each one.

This is “selling your sawdust” - repackaging (selling) the byproduct of the work you are already doing.

(2) Productisation

Across certain topics kept resonating. Founders would ask about product-market fit, about finding co-founders, about early hiring. These surfaced as not just content opportunities but were problems founders needed structured help solving.

So they started building programs around their best-performing content themes.

• Angel Track (2019) emerged from all the content they'd published about fundraising and investing. Instead of just writing about how to become an angel investor, they created a program that selecting elite operators interested in this (which also helped visibility amongst A+ companies).

• PMF Method Program (2024) took years of product-market fit content - including that legendary Rahul Vohra piece - and turned it into a systematic program with Todd Jackson (First Round Partner). This is now a cohort based program, as well as a structured methodology with tools and frameworks for general consumption.

• Around 2020 they also hired a few internal engineers for internal / external tools

This is the evolution - using content to identify needs, then building products and infrastructure around those needs. Much more on that here.

THE 4 TAKEAWAYS: WHAT YOU CAN STEAL

1. CONSISTENCY COMPOUNDS

FRR has shown up every week for 10+ years with quality content. First Round just kept publishing. The depth of the archive creates credibility that no individual piece could generate alone.

What this means for you: Pick a cadence you can sustain - weekly, bi-weekly, monthly - and don't miss. Whatever cadence you can to ensure each piece is excellent, then let time go to work. One great article per month for three years gives you 36 pieces. Which beats 100 average posts scattered inconsistently across formats.

2. HYPER-SPECIFIC BEATS THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

First Round made a deliberate choice - every piece of content must include something concrete. They published case studies and numbers. Data and concrete examples remove ambiguity.

What this means for you: If you have portfolio companies, you have data. If you run processes as your firm you have data. Find the truth and publish it.

3. PEER-TO-PEER BEATS PARTNER-TO-FOUNDER

FFR strategy isn't partners but giving operators a platform to share what worked. The platform surfaces expertise from the people who've actually built companies. Their role is curation (finding the right people), extraction (getting them to share specifics they wouldn't normally share publicly), and presentation (packaging it so it's accessible and actionable).

What this means for you: Feature operators and founders, not just your partners. Go outside your portfolio - it builds credibility and expands your network. Position yourself as the platform, not the star. Your value is in asking the right questions, pulling out the useful details, and making it accessible.

4. PRODUCTISE YOUR BEST CONTENT

First Round actively mines their archive for ongoing value. Every year they publish "The Top 30 Pieces of Advice" from that year's articles, they create curated collections: "Our 6 Must-Reads on Hiring" or "Essential Content Marketing Advice" that cluster related articles and give new readers entry points.

But they go further. They built structured programs and products around whatever resonates the most.

What this means for you: Your archive is an asset that should work harder. Create seasonal roundups of your best pieces. Build thematic collections that group related content. Resurface evergreen articles when they're relevant to current discussions. And watch what resonates… Doesn’t need to be a full program, but maybe a workshop, a template, a framework. Turn your content insights into products.

Closing Thoughts…

Here's what I find most interesting about First Round. When everyone is thinking about short form, First Round is still publishing 3,000-word articles.

The long tail of this from an SEO and AI-EO perspective are enormous… anecdotally I am always stumbling onto FRR unintentionally trying to find something about VC, a specific company, or best practices.

This isn’t a +1 for employing SEO strategies… the reality is the breadth and depth of FRR is unrivalled. This is the three legged stool of quality, quantity and consistency.

Consistency is an undefeated strategy, and patience is an insurmountable moat.

So… What are you willing to do for 5+ years before you see the full payoff…

P.S. I just released a 20-minute breakdown of all phases of First Round’s media evolution - from origins (2004) to what might be next (2026).

Laurie, Refinery Media

If you made it all the way through, thanks so much for reading! Several hundred VCs now open this every week. If it’s helped you think differently about marketing, Venture, or storytelling, please send it to someone in your orbit.