Update on Venture / Late-Stage Growth Hiring Market and Tips to Break In
Know the market is in a hard reset with many VC / late-stage growth funds underwater at the moment. Wanted to get a pulse from folks in current seats / those on the recruitment trail when you think hiring will be expected to pick up for lateral assoc / sr assoc roles.
Also any tips from those who have successfully broken in on how to show passion / interest for venture from a MM PE seat where there is extremely limited time to be working on side projects like thesis mapping or writing about industry trends to show interest?
Based on the most helpful WSO content, the venture capital and late-stage growth hiring market has indeed faced challenges, particularly with many funds experiencing downturns. However, the timing for when hiring will pick up for lateral associate or senior associate roles can be quite unpredictable. It's influenced by a variety of factors including market conditions, fund performance, and the broader economic environment.
For those looking to break into venture capital from a middle-market private equity seat, here are some tips to demonstrate your passion and interest:
Networking: Engage with venture capitalists and other industry professionals. Attend industry events, webinars, and conferences to build relationships. Networking can often lead to opportunities that aren't publicly advertised.
Knowledge Sharing: Start a blog or contribute to existing industry publications. Even with limited time, short, insightful posts can demonstrate your understanding and interest in the sector.
Leverage Your Experience: Highlight relevant skills and experiences from your PE role that are transferable to VC, such as due diligence, market analysis, and financial modeling.
Stay Informed: Keep up with industry trends by subscribing to newsletters, following influential VCs on social media, and regularly reading industry reports.
Consider an MBA: Some VC firms value candidates with an MBA, especially from top-tier schools. This can also provide a structured break from work to focus on your venture capital aspirations.
Side Projects: If possible, find small ways to engage with startups or the VC community. This could be through advising early-stage companies or participating in startup competitions as a judge or mentor.
Remember, demonstrating passion for VC is as much about showing your knowledge and network as it is about your direct experience. Even with a demanding job, small, consistent efforts to engage with the venture community can add up and make a difference.
Sources: Lateral after 3+ years in Growth Equity / VC, Lateral Market for Late 2022/Early 2023, How screwed are IB associates if they're laid off?, Growth Eq/Late Stage VC Recruiters, When do y'all think hiring picks back up?
Posting anonymously here so I don’t get doxxed. A couple of thoughts here as someone who just received offers from a Tier 1 VC / late stage growth seats and growth arms of MFs
In terms of top VC / late-stage growth funds, I would define these as: Sequoia, Accel, Lightspeed, ICONIQ, a16z, Bessemer, Kleiner Perkins, Index (starting to build more of a growth muscle). Not really coming here to debate people, you can find fund performance and their portfolios online / Pitchbook as well as talk to people in the industry.
These seats will pop up in a more bespoke manner than people are used to in traditional PE. They don’t really hire in “classes” and if they do it’s bringing in maybe 2 people in a year. For this reason that means they’re always hiring / also never hiring. Really they’re just waiting to see if someone that’s in their network, either organically, flagged to them by a HH, or brought in through a reference, is a good fit for their team and would be interested in joining. For this reason, before even getting to your second question, it’s important to get yourselves in front of these teams and build true relationships with them. A lot of these processes take months if not years because it’s waiting for an investor to move on to an operator role / new fund or a new fund to be raised. Reaching out and starting to build that connection is really important to even be in the conversation when hiring comes around.
In terms of when hiring will come around, I would say through talking to most of the funds above that they’re not that scared by their most recent fund’s performance because they have decade+ track records. For this reason, I do think hiring at a lot of places is still ongoing for the right person.
In terms of how to be that person, you do really have to show this passion and interest as you talked about in your question. As someone coming from a MF PE seat right now, I also had limited time. Truly though if you want one of these seats that come available once a year / 1.5 years, you have to put in the time to show that passion.
For example, during my second analyst year at my fund when I was more settled in, I worked a part time VC job for about 10-20 hours a week which just ended up being my entire weekend. This sucked but allowed me to see a wide swath of companies / markets and be able to talk about them intelligently in the flow of a normal conversation.
In a world where I spent less hours doing that, I would advise you to focus on picking a subvertical within tech (security, infrastructure, vertical applications, healthcare tech, fintech, etc.) and really diving deep here. Every week I’d spend time researching companies from series A through public markets to be able to talk to how they’re similar, how they’re different, what the trends are in the market, and who the winners may be. No VC / growth investor will expect you to be able to speak to every single market (because they’re not going to be able to) but being able to be passionate about one sector is imperative and will take you a long way. Learning about these sectors isn’t too hard because all of the firms above + greylock, insight, BCV, others all post a bunch of think pieces you can read and pull from.
In summary, I think that “writing in public” and stuff is a bit BS and you can get by without it (I just have all of my notes scribbled in a google doc). I would pick a few funds you’re really interested in and start getting close with those investors. From there, I’d pick a space that you want to be able to talk really intelligently about and dive in there.
Also side note but it seems like some crossover activity is picking up as well on the hiring front.
Did you make the switch from MF PE analyst to VC associate? Or did you go associate to associate?
I’m going to one of the growth shops with a strong software presence post IB that I signed in my first year. Fast forward to now and I feel more drawn to VC but obviously not going to renege so curious about making the switch from this side of the industry at the associate level after a year or 2
Technically analyst to associate. I wouldn’t worry about going associate to “associate” though because at a lot of these places listed above (I think except for ICONIQ, Bessemer, and Kleiner Perkins but don’t quote me) most IPs are just “partners” underneath a “general partner” layer rather than associate “programs”.
There are obviously levels within partner but I wouldn’t think of it in the sense that if you miss jumping to VC / growth VC after being an analyst, then you have to wait until you’re making the VP / senior associate jump.
As someone commented below, you’ll see people with PE experience, just IB experience, solely operating experience, etc. join these places. For that reason I wouldn’t think of it in the traditional 2+2 structure that PE is which I think makes it easier for people with varying experience amounts and types to join teams when it makes sense for both parties.
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