The Parting Shot | The Humble Carousel: VC Marketing’s Most Underrated Power Tool

When I joined Vertex Ventures SEA & India as a marketing intern, I expected to spend most of my time drafting LinkedIn captions and refining brand assets. What I didn’t expect was that I’d be learning the art of building trust, one slide at a time.

Carousels became my unexpected training ground. At first glance, they seem simple: 7 slides, one idea, no fluff. But in venture capital, where audiences are sharp, time-poor, and often skeptical, every word and pixel carries weight. A founder might decide to reach out. An LP might read between the lines. A potential hire might think, “This firm gets it.” These posts weren’t just updates; they were signals.

The real challenge wasn’t aesthetic. It was architectural.

Each carousel became a strategic exercise in messaging. How do you explain a nuanced investment thesis without sounding like a press release? How do you highlight founder stories without making them feel transactional? How do you maintain consistency across platforms while still evolving the brand voice?

One of our best-performing pieces tackled the question, “Will EVs dominate the future?” Instead of bold claims, we offered nuance, spotlighting founder insights, India’s 40% EV adoption in three-wheelers, and the government’s 2030 targets. The structure was simple: one idea per slide, clear headers, and a founder takeaway to anchor the message. The result? A sharp, digestible narrative that resonated beyond just the VC crowd.

The discipline I learned from crafting such carousels involved prioritizing clarity and structuring ideas to land with impact and that became a foundation for everything else I did.

It shaped how I approached more complex projects:

I helped launch Vertex’s first brand perception survey across Southeast Asia, contributing to the process of turning scattered impressions into structured insights. I also helped build reporting dashboards through Google Analytics and other insights tools to understand what content actually moved the needle (not just what generated likes). I contributed to board-level marketing reports and created social content that aimed to inform, not just impress.

Overall, this internship sharpened more than just my content instincts. It taught me how to think like a strategist, write like a storyteller, and design like someone who respects their audience’s time. It showed me that good marketing isn’t just about making people swipe, it’s about making them remember.

Trust in venture capital is built through successful investments and strong relationships with founders. But it can be amplified through thoughtful content—sometimes, built one slide at a time.

*Edited by *Rahul Thayyalamkandy, Director, Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India.

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