section_path: Early career
section_name: Early career
paragraph_text: Early career
  
  After graduating from law school, Vance worked for Republican senator John Cornyn. He spent a year as a law clerk for Judge David Bunning of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, then worked at the law firm Sidley Austin, beginning a brief career as a corporate lawyer. Having practiced law for slightly under two years, Vance moved to San Francisco to work in the technology industry as a venture capitalist. Between 2016 and 2017, he served as a principal at Peter Thiel 's firm, Mithril Capital.
  
  In June 2016, Harper published Vance's book, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. The memoir recounts the Appalachian culture and socioeconomic problems of Vance's small-town upbringing. Hillbilly Elegy was on The New York Times Best Seller list in 2016 and 2017. The Times listed it among "6 Books to Help Understand Trump's Win", and Vance was profiled in The Washington Post, which called him "the voice of the Rust Belt ". In The New Republic, Sarah Jones criticized Vance as "liberal media's favorite white trash –splainer" and a "false prophet of blue America ", calling the book "little more than a list of myths about welfare queens ". Hillbilly Elegy 's success helped propel Vance into contact with social elites, and he began writing a column for The New York Times. Vance later said that his interactions with social elites from this time, particularly their perceived disdain for "the people he grew up with", helped shape his later views.
  
  In 2017, Vance joined Revolution LLC, an investment firm founded by Steve Case. Vance was tasked with expanding the "Rise of the Rest" initiative, which focuses on growing investments in underserved regions outside Silicon Valley and New York City.
  
  Vance was a CNN contributor in 2017 and 2018. In April 2017, Ron Howard signed on to direct the film version of Hillbilly Elegy, which was released in select theaters on November 11, 2020. It was released on Netflix for streaming.
  
  In 2019, Vance served on the board of advisors of the With Honor Fund, a Super PAC that helps veterans run for office. From 2020 to 2023, he served on the board of advisors of American Moment, a networking and training organization for young conservatives that is affiliated with Project 2025.
  
  In 2019, Vance and Chris Buskirk co-founded the conservative political advocacy group Rockbridge Network. That year, he also co-founded venture capital firm Narya Capital in Cincinnati with financial backing from Thiel, Eric Schmidt, and Marc Andreessen. During 2020, he raised $93 million for the firm. With Peter Thiel and former Trump adviser Darren Blanton, Vance invested in Rumble, a Canadian online video platform popular with the political right.