[Thread] A tech startup founder describes how he made ~$200K in 2021 by ghostwriting tweets for venture capitalists, as a side hustle for five hours per week
👻 Ghostwriting tweets for venture capitalists is the side hustle of the founder of a tech startup (who asked to remain anonymous). Last year he made about $200,000. Here's how he did it, as told to Insider's @Schwartzesque. 👇 https://www.businessinsider.com/ ... Source: Insider . Tweets: @matt_levine , @schwartzesque , @pitdesi , @adamsinger , @joshelman , @nikmilanovic , @alexisohanian , @adamsinger , @taylorlorenz , @bitech , @bitech , @slava_pestov , @turnernovak , @bitech , @tylertringas , @venkatananth , @mattnavarra , @matt_levine , @carnage4life , @iamsteph , @ellenhuet , @dunkhippo33 , @taylorlorenz , @bitech , @bitech , @bitech , @bitech , @bitech , @bitech , @bitech , @robaeprice , @mims , and @mccarthyryanj Source: Mattathias Schwartz / Insider : I made $200,000 last year ghostwriting tweets for superstar VCs. It takes me 5 hours a week. Here's how I found my clients and built a booming side hustle from scratch. Tweets: Matt Levine / @matt_levine : Honestly this article is so good, its thesis is that the way you win in VC is by becoming an internet micro-celebrity so that founders, who also hang out on Twitter all day, think it's cool to have you on their board. https://twitter.com/... Mattathias Schwartz / @schwartzesque : Turns out that ghostwriting tweets for venture capitalists is a booming cottage industry. I talked to someone who's doing quite well at it ... https://www.businessinsider.com/ ... Sheel Mohnot / @pitdesi : A bunch of folks have DM'd me offering to ghostwrite my tweets, so I asked a recent one who claimed to write for prominent VC's to send me sample tweets that he would send from my account IT WAS SO BAD! (for the record I write all of my own stupid tweets and always will) https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... Adam Singer / @adamsinger : Prob only thing more cringe than paying someone to Tweet for you are the folk with 500K+ bot and paid followers who literally just scrape popular Reddit vids all day & think that makes them interesting. I mean, at least VCs w/ personality of a plank of wood are aware of the issue Josh Elman / @joshelman : All the VCs I know tweet for themselves. But this story is a banger. Before you sign a term sheet, add a line where the VC swears they self tweet with penalty of getting kicked off cap table. https://www.businessinsider.com/ ... Nik / @nikmilanovic : if you ever wonder why most VCs kind of sound the same https://twitter.com/... @alexisohanian : LOL. I knew it!! https://twitter.com/... Adam Singer / @adamsinger : Imagine being such a joyless husk of a human being you decide to pay someone to Tweet for you. What else are these guys doing hiring help to go to concerts on their behalf? Take wife on vacay? Hire a professional dog petter? At some point why even wake up? https://www.businessinsider.com/ ... Taylor Lorenz / @taylorlorenz : “Most VCs who are playing the content game employ a bunch of writers. I know people who make almost seven figures doing this.” https://www.businessinsider.com/ ... @bitech : @Schwartzesque Some VCs will pay the ghost writer per tweet. He has also done: ✍️$100,000 threads to announce a big funding round. ✍️$100 tweets. https://www.businessinsider.com/ ... @bitech : @Schwartzesque The ghost writer has clients he loves writing for, but sometimes will fire clients — he doesn't want this second job to take up too much space. He says he doesn't want to feel pressure to produce, or for it to interfere with his own company. https://www.businessinsider.com/ ... Slava Pestov / @slava_pestov : So if our tech thought leaders don't actually write their own tweets, what exactly is it that they do all day? https://twitter.com/... Turner Novak / @turnernovak : and it's worth every penny DM me for an intro to any of mine https://twitter.com/... @bitech : @Schwartzesque A single tweet the ghost writer writes can generate as many as 4 million impressions for his clients. Oddly, the smaller the number, the more they're often willing to pay. He says those are the clients who need the distribution more. https://www.businessinsider.com/ ... @tylertringas : so much of this industry is beyond parody 😂 https://twitter.com/... Venkat Ananth / @venkatananth : nice. twitter threads-as-a-service™️ https://www.businessinsider.com/ ... Matt Navarra / @mattnavarra : How a Ghostwriter Makes $200,000 a Year Writing Tweets for Top Silicon Valley Investors I know a few people who make a LOT of money ghostwriting tweets for high profile public figures https://www.businessinsider.com/ ... Matt Levine / @matt_levine : dream job tbh https://www.businessinsider.com/ ... Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life : There's basically no skill in giving entrepreneurs money and a bottomless well of capital leading to over saturation in VCs. I get VCs trying to stand out by being popular on Twitter but is there any evidence this gets them into better startup deals than the non-shitposters? https://twitter.com/... Stephanie Horbaczewski / @iamsteph : So as someone who's first exit was a huge influencer network- it doesn't track with me that we try to slight the advantage that your own massive distribution channel and ability to influence behavior (like additional investors, press, alliances with other companies..)—has. https://twitter.com/... Ellen Huet / @ellenhuet : even if i had hired an army of paid personal brand tweeters, i could not have conjured a juicier piece of Twitter rage-bait than this interview https://twitter.com/... Elizabeth Yin / @dunkhippo33 : This is so fascinating! I write all my tweets and am clearly in the wrong business. I should be tweeting for other VCs! https://twitter.com/... Taylor Lorenz / @taylorlorenz : Another fun example of how influencer culture is warping the tech world https://twitter.com/... @bitech : @Schwartzesque The ghost writer says taking risks can lead to greater attentional rewards, but the precise level of risk he will take depends on the client. It's a question of what brand they're trying to build. https://www.businessinsider.com/ ... @bitech : @Schwartzesque So why are these VCs willing to pay so much? To understand that, the ghost writer says you have to understand the evolution of Silicon Valley and how startups get funded. https://www.businessinsider.com/ ... https://twitter.com/... @bitech : @Schwartzesque Most VCs who are playing the content game employ a bunch of writers. The ghost writer says he knows people who make almost seven figures doing this. He also says he's not there yet. But he definitely makes more at this than at his day job. https://www.businessinsider.com/ ... https://twitter.com/... @bitech : @Schwartzesque Ghostwriting wasn't something this ghost writer knew anything about. He was just building relationships and using those relationships in his day job. https://www.businessinsider.com/ ... https://twitter.com/... @bitech : @Schwartzesque The ghost writer prides himself on not sticking his foot in his mouth. There is a set of topics that no matter what is said about them, it leads to people being angry in the replies. And VCs will often choose to engage in those third-rail topics. https://www.businessinsider.com/ ... https://twitter.com/... @bitech : @Schwartzesque As a ghostwriter, he never logs in to a client's Twitter account. The ghost writer uses a software tool where he drafts tweets, the client sees them, and the client can then choose to send them if and when they want. https://t.co/4yZa4ZC7WO https://t.co/oYiXFzW57T @bitech : @Schwartzesque The ghost writer says it's important to him that he does all of the ghostwriting work himself, as a side hustle. Otherwise it would feel as if he were stealing from his day job. He has dozens of employees, and owes them his full attention. https://www.businessinsider.com/ ... Rob Price / @robaeprice : “We've been living in the metaverse for 15 years. We live in a technology-mediated reality. There are no facts. Narrative is the only thing that matters. Everything is propaganda.” https://twitter.com/... Christopher Mims / @mims : thread: some subset of VC became about thinkfluencing your brand at founders conclusion: some VCs love the creator economy because they are prime examples of it https://twitter.com/... Ryan McCarthy / @mccarthyryanj : “Read the timeline for long enough and you'll start to realize that most of this is just cribbing other people's jokes.” https://www.businessinsider.com/ ...
Context & Ripple Effects
VC Twitter has been a contested stage for years: the anonymous account @VCBrags built a following by mocking investors' boastful quote-retweets in 2020, and by 2021 the platform hosted open warfare between a16z partners, Balaji Srinivasan, and the journalists who cover them. This thread adds an economic layer to that story: some of the voice driving those fights was literally purchased.
First-order effects
- Venture capitalists who hire ghostwriters get a constant, polished presence on the platform where deal flow and reputation are negotiated, at a cost of roughly five hours of someone else's week — while writers like this founder convert that demand into ~$200K a year.
- Founders, journalists, and LPs reading these timelines are responding to commissioned prose rather than the investor's own thinking, which distorts who appears insightful and why.
Second-order effects
- As more VC voices turn out to be rented, unghostwritten accounts acquire a scarcity premium, and the ghostwriting market professionalizes — the relationships note some writers already earning near seven figures.
- Investors who don't buy voice now compete against rivals with professionally produced personas, creating pressure to hire their own writers just to stay legible on the platform.
Third-order effects
- The arrangement sits awkwardly beside [[a:885241|Marc Andreessen's argument that VC is safe from AI because it runs on intangible psychological insight]] — if that insight is routinely expressed through purchased copy, the industry's claimed moat looks partly outsourced.
- If the pattern holds, executive voice becomes a standard service category alongside PR and comms, extending the dynamic Vox documented of writers and artists being pushed to perform personal brands — except here the brand-holder buys the performance instead of doing it.
The trend: Tech finance is converting individual voice into an outsourced service, with paid personas displacing organic presence on the platforms where reputations and deals are made.