Absolute novice seeking advice (Venture Capital)

Hi all - long story short I have been working 7 years in markets in sales, and I feel like a proper midlife crisis is hitting me and I need to change jobs. Most of my friends did M&A and now work in PE, or are still in markets and enjoy it. My end goal is to do something productive with my life that I will enjoy, it seems VC might be one of those avenues.

I have a pretty solid background for what I do, classic path of top university in the UK, BB graduate program etc.. I already have a masters, and I know in the US a lot of people go via an MBA to change career, I'd rather not spend the 200K+ and would rather start working immediately in a new job.

I intend to cold call various large funds and get myself some meetings this way (I work in sales, I'd like to think I can at least manage that...)
Anyways, my questions are:

1) Would I be expected to bring money on the table? GBP 50K, GBP 100K etc... ?
2) Why is everyone going into PE after their banking stint and not VC?
3) I read money is not great, if you bust your balls for a big firm for 2-3 years and then move on to something smaller, why wouldn't the rewards be better?
4) What are we looking at for base and bonus? For someone coming in as a 2nd - 3rd year (I guess that's where I would be looking at joining given I have no modelling experience etc... I am happy to pay a drastic pay cut if the upside is great (still at the dawn of my life I'd like to think)
5) I'd be looking at going into a VC fund that does more into financing financial start ups as that's where I have a bit of knowledge, is London a good place for this? (I am also a US citizen so potentially could move to the US, but that would mean moving my family there so a hell of a gamble)

Any advice? Someone who has made such a move themselves in the past, or who know of someone who have done such a move?

I am still researching, and might potentially just look at moving on to the buy side. But I am almost 30, and if I am going to switch career it's now or never.

Much appreciate!

(PS: I've been on this website for 7+ years, but under a different nickname :))

 

Don't do it. VC is not something you just roll into when you're 30 because you're jealous of your friends in PE. You have no relevant experience whatsoever and no genuine passion for it. If all you want is money and status then do a better job with sales. Top sales guys can make a ton of dough.

 
VC_associate_13:

Don't do it. VC is not something you just roll into when you're 30 because you're jealous of your friends in PE. You have no relevant experience whatsoever and no genuine passion for it. If all you want is money and status then do a better job with sales. Top sales guys can make a ton of dough.

You've assumed a lot without replying to any of my questions. I am not jealous of my friends in PE, and this is not something I want to do. PE is for M&A bankers post MBA or right after their banking stint. I have no intention of doing this. I want to get at the very early stage of companies, not some turnaround mega buy out at Blackstone. I just don't have a lot of friends who are in VC for me to ask the questions that I want to ask, everyone I graduated with are PE or Market that's it.

No where did I say I wanted more money or status - I want to do something interesting which is completely different. There comes a point when you've worked your ass off, have a house and a car, are stable financially and you realize you want something more out of life; this is where I am at.

My concern is after doing such a career switch I'd be looking at substantially less than what I do currently. Believe it or not, but although I want something more interesting I still want to be able to invest and afford private education in the UK for my kids to be. Basically if you got answer to all the questions I asked above that would be extremely helpful.

 

I also haven't met a single VC with this kind of background. As I said before, VC isn't something you can just roll into because you're having a mid career crisis. You need to have either 1) strong tech operating experience or 2) elite business background. In other words, you need to either be a successful founder, VP level or higher at a large tech company, or coming from a bulge-bracket banking or MBB consulting background + elite MBA. Practically every good VC falls into one of those buckets. You also need to have genuine enthusiasm, knowledge, and passion for tech and startups. This is very difficult to fake.

To answer your questions: 1) If you're a partner yes. You will definitely not be a partner so no. 2) PE pays more. It's also much more finance intensive 3) You're rewarded if you perform. Even if you're at Kleiner Perkins if you don't perform you're done. Absolutely fund size doesn't matter. What matters is IRR and profit per partner 4) There's no such thing as 2nd or 3rd year in VC. There are pre-MBA associates, post-MBA associates, principals, and partners. Promotions are merit based, not tenure based. You're in a tough spot where you're too old to be an associate and don't have the experience to be a principal or partner 5) This would be your best bet. Getting a job from a generalist fund in the US would be extremely difficult.

Realistically it's going to be a very uphill battle. Why not try a sales role in a different industry? That would be a lot easier and you could find it more interesting. I'm puzzled as to why all of a sudden you want to do VC after doing something completely different your whole career.

 
Best Response

1) You wouldn't be joining at partner level so no you won't be expected to bring in money

2) PE pays more money and there are less VC roles available

3) Moving onto a smaller fund = less management fees (tho less people as well). Getting returns from any potential investments will take 5-7 years so you won't be seeing money come in from carry for a long. Also, it's very hard to raise a venture fund (especially given the industry is shrinking and LP's don't like the asset class all that much)

4) Assuming you come in at an pre or post MBA associate level, you can probably get around 100-200k (probably 100k base with 50k bonus ish), maybe some carry if you're post-MBA.

5) There's no "hub" IMO that focuses on financial technology start-ups. Best place to be in Silicon Valley for obvious reasons

I have never met a single VC that has 7 years experience as sales guy on a trading desk. I'd imagine the only way to make the move is go get a top MBA and network hard with VC's / intern at VC-backed startups and then pray you get lucky and land a job. Alternatively, you can go start a start-up, get VC backing and hopefully an exit then make the transition back to VC. Or go work for a VC backed start up in a sales role, crush it and be the VP of Sales for a successful VC backed start-up.

 
VC_associate_13:

Btw you're the same user who made a long thread about how you wanted to do REPE. You honestly seem all over the place and very unfocused. Do your homework and figure out what you really want to do before asking a bunch of basic questions

Thanks for the reply earlier. I am doing my homework, that's the point of me going into an anonymous forum and getting information to know what I want to do. Do you see me rocking up to some partner at DE Shaw VC and asking him for a job with my little knowledge? No. Reason being is that I don't know enough about how it all works out, so I come here, like I came 7+ years ago asking for information. I might not go into VC at all, or even try if I realize it's not for me! I'll be in sales probably for another bonus or two bonus rounds. Might go for an MBA, might not. Might do RE or VC, might not. I've got enough of a network thanks to old alumnus, once I realize and know what I want to do I'll do it. In the meantime I appreciate your answers.

 

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