Recruit for FT IB or Focus on VC?

Hello Monkeys,

Currently an incoming junior at a semi-target state school (Penn State/Ohio State/UT/etc), pursuing a double major in finance and accounting + minor in physics. Freshman summer, I previously had an accounting internship where I received an offer to come back the following (this) summer, but instead moved to T1 city to focus on my trading startup. The startup has been gaining traction as I managed to raise mid-5-figures so far; however, I'm not particularly interested in pursuing LT.

Unfortunately didn't land a SA2027 IB offer, but I want to preface that I'd like to end up in VC. I have some connections at a couple T1 firms (think FF/a16z/Thrive/etc). I understand the stipulation of breaking into VC out of UG within exits, comp, and whatever else - still want to do it as it's where I'm most interested in and want to build my career.

Would love some insight on whether it makes more sense to recruit for FT IB, put in a few years, and then transition to VC, or should I focus my efforts on recruiting directly for VC roles.

3 Comments
 
Most Helpful

I joined venture out of undergrad but would say that it is a hard and unobvious path where direct recruitment seems to do more harm than not.  There are a couple undergrad feeder programs (think drf, gcvf) that seem to have had exceptional placement results, but almost all of these were decision points between strong tech offers and venture where venture seemed the worser option.  These days, it seems that banking --> venture is a much less common profile than before, as the skillset needed to win in venture today leans more and more technical.

 

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