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1/ To be a good/great early-stage investor you have to learn to trust your gut and invest *before* there are clear market signals.
2/ I have always believed this & this is why I focused @K9Ventures at the 'frighteningly early' stage. I have to be frightened when I am investing! 
3/ This means having conviction on the team, the idea, and the market. Rarely will you have conviction on all three. Having strong conviction on one, or okay conviction on two is more likely.
4/ It's common for VCs to take credit for being early believers in a company. If they wrote the check, then yes, they were believers—more so than those that had the opportunity to didn't write the check!
5/ But I would posit that no VC can ever say that they didn't have an iota of doubt in their mind if they invested at Pre-Seed or Seed. Once you get to Series A/Series B and beyond a company often starts to show more signs of becoming a real business.
6/ To be able to read between the lines and fill in the gaps of a company's first pitch is a skill honed with practice. This is what makes early-stage (Pre-Seed & Seed) investing more of an art than a science.
7/ Institutionally-backed solo-GP funds in venture used to not exist. Today there are a few, but they are still a small fraction of the ecosystem. Being an institutionally-backed solo-GP requires conviction of another kind—conviction in yourself.
8/ Going solo is not always an easy road to take, but I personally wouldn't have it any other way. 100% accountability for the mistakes and for the successes. No finger-pointing at anyone other than yourself. No drama.
9/ Once when I told someone that I was a solo-GP, they commented: "Your partner meetings must be really short."
To which I responded: "Or they never end."
To which I responded: "Or they never end."
