VC Analyst Opp out of Undergrad

I need the board's advice on a recent offer I received with a $500 million venture capital fund. The role is for a 1st year analyst, fresh out of undergrad. It is a small firm (6 investment professionals), and top heavy with 4 partners. I would have the opportunity to do a lot of modeling, due diligence on investment opportunities, and sit in on entrepreneur pitches. The firm has a strong record, having developed and sold businesses to some of the world's largest tech names. The partners mentioned the Analyst will be expected to make a 2-3 committment.

My question to you all is, what exit opps exist from a relatively small VC firm? Consulting? Corp Strategy? Tech IB? Curious to hear what everyone has to say....thanks!

 
Best Response

I am sick and tired of hearing about exit opportunities. You have in front of you a great opportunity. If you are a worth a shit, you can go and do whatever the hell you want after your stint at that firm. You shouldn't have to sit and think about what jobs will be available to you after this VC analyst job.

Ridiculous.

You're born, you take shit. You get out in the world, you take more shit. You climb a little higher, you take less shit. Till one day you're up in the rarefied atmosphere and you've forgotten what shit even looks like. Welcome to the layer cake, son.
 

Jesus, take it. Second everything Nefarious said. This is a no brainer.

- Capt K - "Prestige is like a powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you enjoy. If you want to make ambitious people waste their time on errands, bait the hook with prestige." - Paul Graham
 

Thanks for the input.

I should also mention that I received a BB ECM offer a few weeks ago, so I need to make a decision soon. The VC firm seems like it would give me much more hands on exposure and allow me to learn more than I may at a larger firm like a BB. I'm not really sure what I want to do down to in the future, so the ECM role would probably give me a broader skillset. Thoughts?

 

Hey...

Keep this in mind..

I was looking @ a VC opp once and it said that it wouldn't lead to a buyside position post MBA......i don't know what that meant.. Basically, i'd be working for the portfolio companies dointg analysis for the companies, looking for potential exits, monitoring cash ratios, etc. Seemed more like a credit role or something along the lines of that. I was told I wouldn't be involved in that much "decision making" or "investment analysis.":

nevertheless, didn't get the job. but hey, could be worse, atleast you wouldn't be working @ a big 4.

 

You realize that for a lot of people VC is the exit opp they're looking for, right? Take the fucking job you shouldn't have even had to ask

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 

Agreed with Billy Ray, the VC job sounds like a great opportunity. You'd be a fool to pass it up for ECM.

- Capt K - "Prestige is like a powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you enjoy. If you want to make ambitious people waste their time on errands, bait the hook with prestige." - Paul Graham
 

Assuming that you actually want to work in the tech/startup/VC space, this is a no-brainer

Given that you're asking about exit ops though, I'm guessing that might not be the case. If you're looking for more general finance stuff longterm like PE/hedge funds/non-tech corp dev, then the BB offer actually might make more sense

 
jamar:
dude.........

1.Like the markets? Follow stocks? Is your end goal HFs?

2.Interested in Corp Dev/Strategy/making a career outta VC?

if it's 1, go ECM

  1. go VC

Yep. I'd also add generalist PE to #1 (you'll have a lot more luck lateraling to a top non-ECM IB group coming from ECM than VC, unless that VC is a huge name brand). The VC option isn't a hands down better option, it depends on what you want to do.

 

Base salary is $70k, with a small eoy bonus (nothing at all compared to banking). The position is not in NYC, but rather another solid mid-atlantic PE/VC city where cost of living is far lower than NYC. Not really considering money in my decision as the quality of the opportunity seems to make up for the discrepancy in pay with the ecm gig.

They have a strong track record of exits, including multiple IPOs but I am slightly weary of the deal flow as I was told their investment horizons has doubled. Also, my interests weigh more heavily towards equity markets (HF route) than PE/VC/Corp Dev which is why the BB ECM role is even in consideration at this point.

 

The VC route really doesn't make much sense to me unless:

  1. You have a strong interest in tech and want to pursue fundamental tech investing at HF

  2. The shop is VERY reputable and is a name brand in the general finance community (Sequoia, KP, Benchmark etc.)

Otherwise, I think ECM will be much better to get you where you want to go. It's really not as simple as, VC = buyside = exit from banking, so of course take it over banking, which most people on this thread seem to be suggesting. VCs are pretty far removed from the rest of the high finance world, and 1. your experience won't really be relevant to most HFs unless it is a fundamental tech-focused group and 2. HFs you're applying to will not have even heard of the VC shop you're currently considering unless it is a huge name brand (which I doubt is the case if there are 6 partners and you're looking at a mid-Atlantic office).

 

no no ib or bust. you need to focus on getting your cfa. so take 6-8 months off and prepare for that. then download the networking guide and move to manhattan and cold call until you get hired at a mm ibd. that's the only way youre going to get into a top biz school/

 

All types of people go on to top MBA programs, it's not just bankers. VC is a hard area to break into so if you can get a full-time role, and make connections and gain good experience in the process, you can definitely make it into an MBA program.

"I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse."
 

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