It’s such an opaque field, especially compared to GE and buyout, that I thought it was worth it to discuss.
Location: NYC
Level: ASO1 (from IB)
Base: 150K
Bonus: 10K
Carry: None
Industry Focus: Tech
Latest Fund Size: $150M
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Based on the most helpful WSO content, VC compensation can indeed be quite opaque and varies significantly depending on fund size, geography, and role. For your specific case as an ASO1 in NYC with a $150M fund, your reported base of $150K and $10K bonus aligns with the lower end of VC compensation for smaller funds.
For comparison: - Larger funds (e.g., $500M+ AUM) often offer higher bases ($200K+) and bonuses, along with carry allocations. - Carry is typically more common at higher levels (Senior Associate/VP and above) or in larger funds.
If you're transitioning from IB, this comp might feel lower, but it's reflective of the smaller fund size and the tech focus. If you're looking for benchmarks, funds with $500M+ AUM or in regions like Silicon Valley might offer more competitive packages.
Sources: REPE compensation, VC London Pay, PE Comp Question - VP / Principal Level, Special Situations Investing (BX, Apollo, Ares), Q&A: Corp Dev Professional at Large-Cap Tech Company
ASO 2 (ignore title) - 350k, west coast
What kind of fund?
What are your hours like?
About 60 a week, minimal weekend work
This implies 9-9PM every weekday for $160k. VC is looking like a complete joke from comp/WLB perspective
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damn that's low sorry man
Unfortunately, it’s pretty in-line, if not higher, than industry average for pure play VCs that are not asset aggregators.
What are the VCs that are "asset aggregators"? Is the pay the same at places like Sequioa, Insight, Benchmark, Lightspeed, a16z, etc?
How is this industry average? This is less than corp dev. Would have thought atleast $200k+ cash if not some carry?
My comment got deleted accidentally but don’t forget the median VC fund size is like 30m. Even the largest VC funds only pay slightly more than $200K at the ASO1 level.
That being said, its better than CorpDev as your comp scales quickly with carry and there’s more room for vertical growth.
As guy above said, VCs need to keep fund size small as possible to execute their strategy due to the power law. One $1B exit on a $100M fund might return the fund, if you have a $1B fund you need 3-5 $1b+ exits to have any type of upper quartile returns. And there’s only so many $1B+ exits out there.
This translates directly to comp at junior levels because they don’t have much management fees to go around and carry is usually aso2+ or vp+ level.
~$1Bn fund, west coast, $300k aso 2, 50-60 hours a week
What stage do you focus on?
A/B, mostly series A
What did you do before? Ib?
BUMP
Ignore title, AN2 lateral from MF PE. 140K base, 100K bonus. Work at a top fund (lean shop too). 65-85 hours a week.
What stage do you focus on?
Bay Area
Associate 1
Corporate Venture Arm of F50 Company
Base: $150K
Bonus $75K
45-55 hours
That's solid, especially for a CVC. What stage do you focus on?
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