Here's how a former New York City policy wonk transitioned from a City Hall job to running an early-stage VC fund

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Here's how a former New York City policy wonk transitioned from a City Hall job to running an early-stage VC fund

roy bahat

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Roy Bahat.

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Roy Bahat is an "untraditional" investor- someone who became head VC of a leading fund after trying nearly everything else.

Bahat ran a nonprofit, founded his own company, and served as senior policy director under Michael Bloomberg when he took office as mayor of NYC in 2002. Ten years after he left that last role, he's leading Bloomberg Beta, an early-stage fund that wrapped up its third $75 million fund on October 18. To date, Beta has invested in companies like freight forwarding company Flexport, music services company Kobalt, and augmented writing platform Textio.

Bahat told Harry Stebbings on an episode of "The Twenty Minute VC" that he's been a VC for seven years now, which is the longest he's been in any job. For anyone looking to enter the VC world, Bahat says his "messy career" demonstrates that the best path to getting there isn't always linear.

It's a mindset change. Professionals usually put value into titles and a demonstrable upwards trajectory in their careers, going deep into a field as opposed to taking jobs based on the skills and experiences they want to acquire. Bahat is an example of someone who, with complete confidence, entered the VC world from a completely different one. Or four.

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His resume doesn't display what you'd immediately expect from a VC - the head of Bloomberg Beta no less.

Building a career portfolio means keeping what you want to learn in mind

Just as a VC fund attempts to build a portfolio of lucrative companies, Bahat chose a career that resembles more of a portfolio than a neat unfolding of roles. In the mayor's office, Bahat proposed policies for economic development. As co-founder and chairman of OUYA, he led a team to build a new kind of game console.

Bahat echoed this opinion in a blog post: "There are many people who focus on one thing to the exclusion of all else for years on end - and I admire that. But often, it isn't like that."

He continued by pointing out that ultimately, a career path should tell the story of the skills and experiences a person chose that matter to them. This might not be packaged in a neat, "ready for a LinkedIn update" way.

"The jobs, the organizations, are all just shorthand for what's important - what we know, what we can do, who we know (and who knows us), and what we believe," Bahat writes.

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Bahat's own life translates to what he expects from the founders he invests in at Bloomberg Beta. He's fine with backing founders with jobs other than the startup they're working on, going as far as to write: "We think having multiple interests is healthy."

Focus and explore in equal measure

Bahat isn't alone in living by the idea of a career as a portfolio. Marc Spilker, a former Goldman Sachs partner turned asset management firm chairman, agrees.

"I happen to think there's a lot of value in doing multiple things," Spilker said in an interview with Business Insider, "because you then can learn different things, you get expertise in different things, and you definitely have more chances to win."

Of course, embracing the "career as a portfolio" concept means always being aware of potential conflicts of interest. There's a simple solution: Disclose all affiliations from the start, and explore away.

"Focus and exploration live in balance with each other," Bahat writes. "You can't have one without the other."

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