Content Creator vs HF Analyst

I think the smarter thing would be to blend both of these paths. Become a creator focused on some aspect of finance or technology.

Harry Stebbings and Pomp are two great examples of this.

A16Z has been at the front of the pack for awhile doing this as an institution, and they just leveled it up by creating a standalone content offering called 'Future'.

Rex Woodbury (you should subscribe to his 'Digital Native' thing) just made Index the first firm on TikTok within six months of joining the firm after finishing Knight-Hennessy / GSB.

I think the prior comment about this being a space with no moat is pretty astute. That being said, there are certain mechanisms where you can create unfair advantages for yourself as a creator that also reinforce or bolster your career. Put plainly, you could pursue a career in venture as a creator-first, employee-second. 

You are clearly smart if you got a strong banking internship. Switch your focus from maximizing now for the buy-side recruiting that follows banking and begin getting smart on some space in technology. 

Here is a comment (excerpted below) on how to do that.

ocus solely on developing a primary thesis (e.g. infrastructure for the creator economy, institutional adoption of crypto, telehealth and digital therapeutics, whatever) and get smart on it.

By smart I mean you should know every incumbent working on an initiative related to your thesis, all the late-stage well-funded companies who already own a chunk of the space, and the exciting new startups who have raised a seed or A or B and are poised for breakout growth - and ideally have spoken to one or more people at each of them such that you have an informed sense of whether or not the company is smart about the market, what holes exist in their strategy, how the team might be stronger (missing a certain skill-set or know-how), and so on.

In the second year, begin your networking campaign to meet all the investors who cover the space related to your thesis. Make a matrix:

• the humans at the big generalist names (A16Z, Kleiner, Sequoia, etc.) who focus on the relevant space
• the humans at the generalist names the same size but less flashy of a brand name (Norwest, Canaan, Sapphire, etc.) who focus ...
• the firms who focus on a specific stage, are smaller, but punch well (First Round, Initialized, etc.)
• the firms who care less about stage and more about a theme (if you picked the creator economy, Li Jin at Atelier)
• and so forth

You will have so much free time from not stressing about learning LBO modeling and private equity technicals that doing this well will be a breeze. Plus it's all fun shit, it's literally learning about the future by exploring the people working on making it happen.

You can start a podcast or Youtube show just being smart in conversation with cool, interesting people around a theme you pick.

You shouldn't go do banking. If you did, you'd (a) have no time to continue your show weekly or whatever cadence you choose, and (b) your employer would freak about it. 

Instead, go somewhere where your content machine is viewed as a good thing.

Work by hook and crook to get into the tech, healthcare, or consumer group for your internship. Then network to get a job at a venture firm.

Most firms don't do analyst programs. There are some big funds that do; these are places like Insight, General Atlantic, Stripes, and some others.

Most firms in the space offer 'associate' as their entry-level position. It's largely about sourcing, portfolio support, and diligence. It's not cold-calling like Insight and TA, it's thematic research around some area of interest where by virtue of uncovering the companies at the stage your firm focuses on that are working in that space, you know them and get in touch to learn what they're doing. That kind of sourcing.

There literally is not a credible firm in venture that doesn't have associates. 

The cool thing about all of this is that you'll very naturally know when you can unplug from formal employment to do your own thing. Whether it's getting SVB to pay $100k to sponsor your thing for a year, having an ecommerce cash flow business you do with the rest of your time between episodes, or anything else you cook up, at some point it will not make sense to stay plugged into a paycheck relative to focusing solely on your own thing.

There's a blueprint for this. 

What I'll tell you is that the farther into a traditional "career" you get, the harder it is to decouple yourself. Your brain gets used to thinking in a certain way. Your risk tolerance gets baked, even if you don't think it is. 

I have seen this time and time again with friends, colleagues, and acquaintances. 

If this is something that interests you, you should find a way to be as thoughtful and intentional as possible in pursuing it ... but most importantly, pursue it.

Just by virtue of hanging around for five years interacting with a bunch of smart and cool people who think you're smart and cool, opportunities will fall in your lap. People will break their funding announcements on your show. They will want to do product launches in tandem with you. You will have the opportunity to invest in their stuff, and if you don't have the money, you can talk to the other people you've met about whether you can use their money to do the investment. 

The question is whether you can hang in there long enough for all of that to coalesce while it sucks. That's probably a five or so year journey from scratch. The cool thing is that if you have two years of school left, you can get through the brunt of it before graduating ... maybe get farther faster because being able to say "I'm a student" is an unfair advantage" ... and you could either live with family for a year or two after school or do the digital nomad thing and go somewhere with absurdly cheap cost-of-living.

Moral of the story is ... reach out and grasp it.