From cold emailing 3,000 people to raising $17.5m...

Meet Koko Xs.

At 21, he's just raised $17.5m for his first solo VC fund. That's wild enough on its own, but the story behind it perfectly demonstrates what I've been saying about thinking differently.

See, Koko knew he wanted to get into venture capital. 

But instead of following the traditional path - MBA, years of banking experience, all that stuff - he tried something different.

He realised he needed to learn. Fast.

So he made a list of everyone who could teach him something about the industry: PhDs, founders, VCs, operators - anyone with real experience.

Then he did something most people would call crazy.

He emailed them.

Not a few. Not hundreds. 3,000 of them.

Each email was essentially saying "I want to learn from you. Can we talk?"

Simple format. Massive execution.

The results speak for themselves:

First, Lux Capital noticed him. Not just noticed - they brought him in as an analyst. That's one of the biggest VC firms in the world taking a chance on someone just because they saw his hunger to learn.

From there, he moved to a defense tech company called Mach as Head of Growth. In four months, he helped them go from a $5.7m seed round to a $79m Series A.

But after seeing all this success in operations, Koko realised something important: "[Operating] was a lot of doing, not a lot of thinking" - and that wasn't what he wanted.

So he made another bold move.

"Screw it, I'll start my own fund."

Now he's got backing from the biggest names in tech - Andreesen Horowitz, Lux Capital, and others who rarely back first-time fund managers, let alone 21-year-olds.

His goals? 

They're exactly what you'd expect from someone thinking this big:

1. Write checks to 15 companies

2. Secure 1% of a $10bn company

And I’ve every confidence he’ll smash his goals. 

Here's why this story matters for your business:

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the creator mindset is not growing your follower count. 

It's thinking differently about your professional growth, and by extension, your personal growth. 

Look at what Koko actually did:

• Identified what he needed (knowledge and network)

• Found the simplest way to get it (direct outreach)

• Executed at a scale that made people pay attention

• Used that attention to create real opportunities

• Kept levelling up at each stage

He didn't wait. He didn't "build experience" the traditional way. He didn't follow the normal path.

Instead, he found his format and used it to create leverage.

This is exactly what we're working on in the Think Like A Creator community.

This week, we're running our first challenge - "The Perfect Pitch". Members are getting crystal clear on their vision and strategy, then getting direct feedback from me and the community.

Because sometimes, like Koko showed us, you just need to get clear on what you want and go all in on the simplest way to get there.

Want to join us?

Chat soon,

Jordan

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