Before His VP Nomination, A Secret Billionaire Mentorship Catapulted JD Vance’s Hedge Fund Career

JD Vance, the guy who penned "Hillbilly Elegy" and gave us all a front-row seat to life in the rural, drug-infested Appalachia, is now Donald Trump’s vice-presidential pick for the 2024 election. 

(Source: Out Magazine)

But before stepping into the political spotlight and hitching his wagon to the MAGA movement, Vance was knee-deep in the venture capital (VC) world, thanks to a rare encounter with Peter Thiel.

(Source: The Daily Beast)

So, how did Vance go from writing books to making (and losing) money in Silicon Valley? It all began in 2011 when he was a law student at Yale. Peter Thiel gave a talk that rocked Vance’s world and made him question all his life choices. 

(Source: Stuff)

Instead of donning a lawyer's suit, Vance decided to dive headfirst into venture capital. It's like he watched that one episode of Suits where Mike ditched the legal grind for Wall Street and thought, "Yeah, that’s the ticket!"

In 2016, Vance joined Mithril Capital, a firm named after a fictional metal from “Lord of the Rings” and founded by Peter Thiel. He was like that lucky intern who suddenly gets to hang out with the CEO, except this CEO also happens to be a Silicon Valley legend. After two years of playing junior investor and probably making a lot of coffee runs, Vance decided it was time for a new adventure. He jumped ship to Revolution, a VC firm in Washington D.C. co-founded by Steve Case, the AOL guy who made "You’ve got mail!" a thing.

(Source: Forbes)

At Revolution, Vance managed the Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, a $150 million wheelbarrow of money aimed at boosting startups outside the usual tech hubs like Silicon Valley. It was like a tech treasure hunt in places where people still say “howdy” and occasionally marry their family members.

In 2020, nine years after meeting Thiel, Vance and his buddy Colin Greenspon decided to start their own gig, Narya Capital, in Cincinnati, Ohio. They named it after one of the Rings of Power from Tolkien’s "Lord of the Rings". 

With big bucks from Thiel and other tech giants like Eric Schmidt, Narya raised over $93 million. They invested in everything from Rumble, a free-speech video platform, to Anduril Industries, an AI defense firm that sounds like it belongs in a sci-fi movie.

Rumor has it that when J.D. Vance was gearing up to announce his Senate run in 2021, he sought advice from Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, with Peter Thiel along for the ride. 

Despite being a vocal critic of Big Tech, his supporters at Narya include Eric Schmidt and two directors from Facebook. It's a bit ironic, right? However, policy experts point out that Vance’s backing of higher corporate taxes for big businesses and his tough stance on tech monopolies show he’s "not a friend to Big Tech." They added that the major corporate donors in the GOP are quite unhappy that he's their candidate. Usually that’s a good thing when it comes to politics right?

At 39, J.D. Vance is breaking the mold as the first millennial on a major party ticket, proving that even avocado-toast-loving millennials can aim for the big leagues. He joins a prestigious list of business-savvy presidential and vice-presidential hopefuls. Take George W. Bush, for instance—before he was making presidential decisions, he was a Harvard MBA graduate and oilman, following in the footsteps of his dad, George H.W. Bush, the 41st president.

(Source: George Bush Presidential Library and Museum)

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