Aram Attar is the Founder of The VC Factory and creator of Mindset-Based Investing, a framework helping LPs and GPs improve Venture Capital returns by focusing on how Investors and Founders think.
He is also an active LP with a select group of funds whose GPs are receptive to his approach.
Earlier in his career, Aram spent 20 years in LBOs, Growth Equity, and Venture Capital, completing more than 50 transactions across three continents.
I help LPs and GPs improve Venture Capital returns through Mindset-Based Investing
After 20 years in LBOs, Growth Equity, and Venture Capital, I learned that outlier performance in VC comes from mindset: how Investors and Founders see the world and handle uncertainty.
I founded The VC Factory in 2018 to put this into practice, publishing edgy research on cognitive biases in entrepreneurship and Venture Capital, and training hundreds of Founders and dozens of VCs worldwide.
In 2025, I launched The VC Factory Insights, a series of reports and selective, invite-only LP/GP events promoting Mindset-Based Investing across the ecosystem.
I also make select investments in the funds of Emerging GPs who are receptive to my approach and where I believe I can add real value.
If you follow my work, you’ll find lived insight, auditable evidence, and a framework — Mindset-Based Investing— that helps LPs and GPs identify the rare GPs and Founders who play to win.
Read the Manifesto for more on Mindset-Based Investing.
How I spread Mindset-Based Investing
Most of my work today is about making Mindset-Based Investing usable for LPs and GPs in the real world. That shows up in five main activities.
1. Research reports & essays
Flagship analyses combining academic insight, on-the-ground interviews, and behavioural frameworks to explain how the best LPs and GPs make decisions. These reports anchor my thought-leadership work and shape conversations across the ecosystem.
The first report focuses on how LPs can better select Emerging GPs; I also present the theory that underpins my approach.
I publish two reports per year on different aspects of decision-making in Venture Capital and entrepreneurship. You’ll also find dozens of essays on VC-related topics on this website.
2. LP/GP events
Opportunities for a select group of LPs and GPs to go deeper into the latest Insights report: I present the key findings, then we open the room for panel debates, Q&A, and informal conversations, with plenty of time left to network with peers.
Our first event took place during Austin’s F1 race weekend in mid-October 2025. Around two dozen LPs and managing partners from VC firms joined us to officially launch TVF Insights and discuss our first report on Emerging GPs.
3. Investment Committee Advisory
One-on-one work with GPs and LPs to diagnose and upgrade how their Investment Committees make decisions. I also attend IC meetings and challenge GPs on non-obvious factors affecting their decisions to pursue or pass on an investment opportunity.
I draw on my experience as a Board member & advisor to dozens of startups (pre-revenues to hundreds of millions in sales) since 2008, plus ongoing research on how the best VC firms structure their ICs, from pre-reads and agenda design to voting rules, dissent management, and post-mortems.
The goal is simple: fewer politics, clearer criteria, and a process that gives promotion-focused, outlier bets a fair shot.
4. Speaking Engagements
Keynotes, conference talks, fireside chats, and interview-style panels where I present the core ideas behind Mindset-Based Investing and the latest TVF Insights reports — but also broader Venture Capital topics such as how to raise capital from VCs, power law & returns, and Founder selection.
At Capital Factory’s Austin Tech Week with Brent Kelton (Moneta Ventures) and Nicole Glaros (Matchstick Ventures)
In these more public settings, I’m either on stage presenting a topic or moderating other Investors.
Because I’ve spent years doing the work myself, I frame debates and panels so they stay concrete, candid, and genuinely useful, instead of the usual surface-level conversations you get when the moderator doesn’t know the craft.
5. Workshops
Full-day or multi-day workshops, usually in person, built on the VC Career Accelerator curriculum that has already trained dozens of VCs through real-world case studies.
We work with LP teams and VC partnerships on concrete situations: past deals, IC memos, portfolio reviews, or manager selection files, and we can adapt the content to participants’ own materials if they wish.
The goal is to improve decision-making and, ultimately, returns — whether you are an LP selecting VC funds or a GP deciding which startups to back.
How I got here
I came into Venture Capital the long way around: corporate finance, LBO financing, and growth equity across several countries and cycles. It taught me how deals are structured, where errors are made, what success looks like, and how to think about risk and return.
Over time, I realized I was less interested in “doing more deals” (I’d done 50 and diligenced hundreds) and more drawn to what was happening in the heads of Founders and Investors. I started teaching Venture Capital academically and training VCs to accelerate their career paths. That’s also when I began digging seriously into psychology and cognitive biases.
In 2018, I decided to turn that mix of practice and research into its own project and launched The VC Factory — first as a blog, then as a full e-learning platform. A few good exits gave me the space to double down on this work, start a doctoral project on entrepreneurial psychology, and eventually relocate to Austin to build TVF Insights.
Three factors characterize my work today:
- Independence: I have no product to push. While we generate revenue through some of the initiatives listed above and accept sponsors who adhere to the mission, my livelihood does not depend on this venture.
- Long‑term focus: I operate on a decade‑long arc, not quarterly cycles. This is probably the last project I will embark on for the remainder of my career.
- Selective collaboration: I prefer a small number of deep partnerships where honesty and mutual growth drive the work.
Get involved
If what you read resonates with what you’re doing, get involved!
- Read the latest Insights report
- Join the newsletter
- Contact me to explore collaboration
- Partner with us as a sponsor