I moved across the world to get into the Ivy League. Then I quit Brown after a year to launch a VC firm at 21.

• Smaiyl Makyshov dropped out of Brown University after a year and founded a VC firm.
• He emailed hundreds of investors before getting his first yes from AppLovin cofounder Andrew Karam.
• Now on his second fund, he's investing in boarding school alumni and YC and A16z-backed founders.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Smaiyl Makyshov, 24, the founder of Multifaceted Capital, a VC firm based in San Francisco. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I started programming when I was nine years old, teaching myself languages like HTML and Java. I was competing in computing Olympiads, but I wasn't interested in programming as a destination. It felt more like a stepping stone toward something bigger. I was always more curious about the application of this technology.

I grew up in Kazakhstan and moved to the US to attend Phillips Exeter, a competitive boarding school known for preparing students for admission to Ivy League colleges. I got into Brown University but decided to take a gap year before starting college.

During that time, I interned at my older brother's venture capital firm. Being there exposed me to how venture actually works and to companies that were scaling quickly. I also noticed a trend that really stuck with me: community-focused investing. Traditionally, VC has been centered around geographies or sectors, but I saw the rise of funds built around specific communities—alumni networks, underrepresented founders, or college dropouts.

I found a gap

I realized I was part of a community that was relatively undertapped in venture: the US boarding school system. Universities like Harvard, Brown, and Princeton had strong VC ecosystems backing their alumni, but top boarding schools didn't have that same structure. It felt like an opportunity to think from first principles — if the best companies are built by the best founders, then where do those founders come from, and what communities shape them?

I carried that thinking with me when I got into Brown. Getting in was a big moment — my parents were really happy, and there was definitely a sense of pride. It felt like a natural continuation of everything I had been working toward. But at the same time, I started questioning what I really wanted to do. Brown was an incredible place, and I saw it as a networking opportunity, but I also felt like I was already moving at a certain pace outside of school.

While I was there, I started exploring an investment thesis, doing research, and even pitching the idea to potential limited partners. It reached a point where I had to make a decision. Leaving Brown wasn't easy — the opportunity cost was high — but I felt deeply convinced in what I was building.

So after three semesters, I dropped out to start Multifaceted Capital.

'Too young'

In the beginning, I had no LPs, no network, and no family capital. Everything was built from scratch through cold outreach — hundreds of emails, hundreds of calls. A lot of nos I got from investors were about me being too young and how I should come back later with more experience. Venture is known to be an "old man's business," and I was a 21-year-old with no track record. It was the classic chicken-and-egg problem.

On top of that, as the sole general partner, I was under pressure to prove success quickly. I had to source high-quality deals and build momentum faster than expected to build credibility.

But I believed in the idea. My first yes came from Andrew Karam, the cofounder of AppLovin, and that gave me a huge amount of confidence to keep going.

I raised $225,000 for my pilot fund in 2023. Then came the challenge of convincing founders to let me be part of their journey. I invest in founders from top boarding schools, and accelerator programs like Y Combinator and Andressen Horowitz's Speedrun. The community-focused aspect of my firm is a big part of my pitch. I tell them I can use this network to introduce them to other investors and connect them with talent.

Three years later, I've raised a second fund of $2.1 million and invested in over 30 companies.

The 'move fast' mentality

What I spend most of my time on now is continuing to refine and expand this investing model, going deeper into the communities I'm a part of and gradually exploring new ones. I'm also working on getting into companies earlier, even before they enter these top accelerators.

When I catch myself overthinking about whether I took too big a risk, I just go back to thinking about where I started, why I started this firm, and why I want to support founders.

A lot of people associate moving fast and scrappiness with founders, and it's not seen as a VC mentality. But moving fast has been a big plus for me as a sole general partner. My founders don't have to wait weeks for a decision or for processes to complete. That's a big advantage when a company has gotten into Y Combinator, for example, and you only have one or two days to say if you're in or not.