What Does It Mean to Be a T-Shaped Investor?
VC in 33 Seconds
What does it mean to be T-shaped in a venture-driven, entrepreneurial team? In this video, Keaton Nankivil breaks it down. He explains how the best team members balance broad curiosity with deep focus — like switching between a spotlight and a laser. At AV, if you’ve got a strong point of view that aligns with the mission, you’re encouraged to chase it. But success comes from knowing where to direct your energy — whether it’s a market, theme, or community. It’s all about owning your focus and driving impact.
VC in 33: What Does It Mean to Be a T-Shaped Investor?
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In this video, Keaton Nankivil shares how a spirit of entrepreneurship drives everything at Alumni Ventures. He introduces the concept of being “T-shaped”— having broad curiosity like a spotlight, but also deep focus like a laser. The key? Knowing where to aim that laser. Whether it’s a theme, a region, or a specific audience, Keaton explains how team members are encouraged to go deep in areas that align with their passions and AV’s mission. It’s a culture that rewards ownership, focus, and bold ideas.
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Keaton Nankivil
Senior Principal, Bascom VenturesKeaton has spent his career focused on high-level teamwork. A proud Wisconsin Basketball alumnus, he started his career playing professional basketball in Europe. He played for and led teams in competitions across Europe, including stops in Germany, Spain, Latvia and Italy. When he returned from overseas, his career focus shifted to the entrepreneurial ecosystem. He has worked with both institutional and corporate venture teams and completed and MBA with a focus on entrepreneurship. He holds a BS in kinesiology from UW-Madison and an MBA from the Nicholas Center for Corporate Finance and Investment Banking from the Wisconsin School of Business.
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You can find the full transcript below:
Keaton Nankivil:
This is a super entrepreneurial organization. T-shaped is something we talk about a lot here. The common analogy is spotlight versus laser, and the ideal situation for us is having the ability to do both. So if you have an interest area and it makes sense as an investible point of view and it benefits the company and the overall mission, we’re always encouraged to do it. But if you’re a laser, you need to concentrate your energy somewhere. And for us, the base of the T is where do I want to concentrate my energy? That can be thematic, it can be geographic, it can be demographic. There are a ton of ways to do it, but it just means where am I going to concentrate my laser?
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