Although not from a top-notch or even late-stage VC, will take a crack on this one and hope it helps. VC funds (Especially the bigger ones) normally looks for someone who belongs to any of the following 3 categories:
1. Has entrepreneurial experience, who have found or being part of the founding team and sold their business (Shows you understand the process of funding > commercialisation > scaling > exit)
2. Deep expertise within a specific space (Phd of certain bio-tech or worked in the field for 10 years is obviously complementary to a bio-tech focused VC)
3. Rich and well connected (Self explanatory, its a people business after all)
To be frankly honest, what have you done in your career to earn the right to advise entrepreneurs? This is the reason why VC funds rarely hire juniors, junior can't really provide the value they needed. It is not about your modelling and ppt skills (It is mandatory, but not the most important)
This advice is true for seed / early stage funds, but is absolutely not applicable for growth-stage. Since you're mostly betting on "teams and dreams" in the former, you don't really need to worry about numbers or operations / processes since they won't have any that are meaningful (in all categories).
At the growth stage, you have a meaningful n of data and your main job is to evaluate if the trajectory you're seeing is sustainable / replicable, which requires people who can do math and get in the weeds... which is why every reputable growth firm is a classic pyramid structure, v. early stage which can easily be top-heavy (or partner-only)
Recruiters are the usual suspects - Glocap is big in VC/growth, as are CPI, Henkel, Dynamics, Carter Pierce, etc. I haven't seen a lot of niche recruiters that people don't really know about - perhaps JHB Search? (I've been told they're legit, they didn't get anything for me though)
For late-stage VC firms (Sequoia, a16z, IVP, TCV, etc.), referral is by far the best way. Easier alternative is to cold email someone (a principal or partner would be fine). A huge part of your job will be sourcing new investment opportunities (role is often described as analyst + sales rep), so being comfortable with proactive outreach is viewed very positively. Cold emails got me interviews with almost all of the big VC firms, although I was generally aware that they were hiring beforehand.
For VC job openings, check the @vcrecruiting handle on Twitter or go to John Gannon's website.
Sorry, you need to login or sign up in order to vote. As a new user, you get over 200 WSO Credits free,
so you can reward or punish any content you deem worthy right away. See you on the other side!
Although not from a top-notch or even late-stage VC, will take a crack on this one and hope it helps. VC funds (Especially the bigger ones) normally looks for someone who belongs to any of the following 3 categories:
1. Has entrepreneurial experience, who have found or being part of the founding team and sold their business (Shows you understand the process of funding > commercialisation > scaling > exit)
2. Deep expertise within a specific space (Phd of certain bio-tech or worked in the field for 10 years is obviously complementary to a bio-tech focused VC)
3. Rich and well connected (Self explanatory, its a people business after all)
To be frankly honest, what have you done in your career to earn the right to advise entrepreneurs? This is the reason why VC funds rarely hire juniors, junior can't really provide the value they needed. It is not about your modelling and ppt skills (It is mandatory, but not the most important)
This advice is true for seed / early stage funds, but is absolutely not applicable for growth-stage. Since you're mostly betting on "teams and dreams" in the former, you don't really need to worry about numbers or operations / processes since they won't have any that are meaningful (in all categories).
At the growth stage, you have a meaningful n of data and your main job is to evaluate if the trajectory you're seeing is sustainable / replicable, which requires people who can do math and get in the weeds... which is why every reputable growth firm is a classic pyramid structure, v. early stage which can easily be top-heavy (or partner-only)
Recruiters are the usual suspects - Glocap is big in VC/growth, as are CPI, Henkel, Dynamics, Carter Pierce, etc. I haven't seen a lot of niche recruiters that people don't really know about - perhaps JHB Search? (I've been told they're legit, they didn't get anything for me though)
For late-stage VC firms (Sequoia, a16z, IVP, TCV, etc.), referral is by far the best way. Easier alternative is to cold email someone (a principal or partner would be fine). A huge part of your job will be sourcing new investment opportunities (role is often described as analyst + sales rep), so being comfortable with proactive outreach is viewed very positively. Cold emails got me interviews with almost all of the big VC firms, although I was generally aware that they were hiring beforehand.
For VC job openings, check the @vcrecruiting handle on Twitter or go to John Gannon's website.