Healthcare / Biotech Venture Capital?
Curious about what kind of candidates healthcare and biotech-focused VCs look for. It seems like many partners have a Ph.D or an MBA - how necessary is that? I’m certainly aware there isn’t just one path.
For context, I am a graduating senior and deciding between three offers in MBB consulting, and BB healthcare investment banking (both at analyst level). I also have an opportunity to join a biotech startup instead. MBA or science master’s degree are an option in the future! But the end goal is VC.
You've hit the nail on the head. The ones I've spoken to have people from either IB or MC (MBB and Tier 2) healthcare teams. If you join as an analyst an MBA is not 100% required but for higher positions it helps.
Thanks a ton!! Any color on consulting over banking or vice versa?
Also if one needs an advanced science degree?
I'm bias as I'm in MC but to be honest I truly think MC would be better than IB for life science VC. Life science IB is great but the methods used are also used for other industries (with some variation) and little specific knowledge is required about the science itself. In MC you take on more roles and projects (strategy, marketing, finance, operations and regulatory/policy projects) so you learn about the industry from a wider and more complete perspective. Science degrees are a must but not necessarily advanced ones. Many positions advertise you need PhD OR MBA + experience but not both. What you do need is at least a BSc in a biomedical field.
all the people I've talked to have a strong science background (PHDs and MDs) or have lots of work experience working in pharma. But all of them said you should have a science background if you want to move up in the ranks.
Is that just because having a credential gives credibility? The science behind drugs is so complicated that I find it hard to believe that having a PhD or an MD gives anyone enough scientific knowledge (and knowledge of market dynamics!) to be able to understand the products of an entire portfolio of companies.
yes. shabbos coy wace traitors fooled my generation of would-be scientists into thinking, as was the case for 30+ years, that all the STEM folks worked FOR savvy, white-haired, sharply-dressed CFAs and MBAs. That was the fact of the bi'dness, and for decades the stereotype of the hapless engineer with a feasible idea HAD to suck up for some elegant James-Bond-style MBA to cum in and commercialize this device/protocol. I spoke dozens of VCs in Silicone Valley--all of them, White, Cantonese, Jwish, Jamaican, Hong, Ha, Tet, all gave me the same goyshit:: "oooh you don't have to be an MD for science finance!" and on and on and on
I was lied ot. every. single. fucking. 1 of them.... studied biology and medical tech at school!!!! they fucking did me D! R T Y .
And what's the composition of supposedly Dilbert Engineers in 2024? Is it Dilbert, shaking his balled fists at Management then the Void, exaserbated with all the short cuts and promotions Foinance goys got instead of Dilbert PHD? or is it a coven of camwhores and technically self eggrandized women who wield a dynastic wind up from their fathers, father's father, and so forth?
You do not reside in a meritocracy. Not even a bit. you know you know. And 2, the whitecollar Chad will ALWAYS bitch about one-off cases that don't at all fit their success story. IDK why that is? Every single "professional" ive ever gotten to know will flog his career, then lash their children if they deviate from same path. Wild, huh?
TLDR should've been me. WOuld've been me. Fraily I watch back in the corners of my brain, how fabulously badly the world screwed up when I was but a child....looking 30 years ago, I would expect to have become the future Neuralink dude. (details guarded). I would eventually stop studying science, looking around me seeing similar cultural infiltrators get to select who failed and who reigned. As I grab another beer I fast forward to fatefully worthless bi'dness gigs at suchandsuch bank, stuffing myself with shit and coffee so I would escape even for a second. Oy vey
I worked in biotech VC straight out of an IB analyst position and currently do a decent amount of work with some of the better known biotech VCs (organizing events, helping them find deals, etc). Am Bay Area based.
Bottom line is these days you pretty much need a PhD, or to be incredible at networking. Most junior / mid level VCs I know, at least at top funds, not only have a PhD and often a postdoc, but have some experience in consulting, or in business roles at a large company. There are maybe 10 top tier early stage biotech funds, and they hire maybe 5 junior / mid level people (very different structure than a non-biotech hedge fund or PE fund). Look at Atlas Venture, Third Rock, 5AM Ventures, Flagship, Orbimed, Versant, ARCH -- they lead the most Series A deals and are the MBB / bulge bracket of the biotech VC world.
Some late stage biotech VC funds (Sofinnova, Longitude, Clarus) used to hire finance / consulting types without PhDs (I was one of them), but these days even they are skewing more towards PhDs, as the market generally is. And these funds now find themselves competing with Chinese investors (Chinese investors actually lead more Series B biotech deals than US biotech VCs, at least in the first 8 mo of 2018) and crossover funds (ie hedge funds / mutual funds that invest in the last private round and then anchor the IPO). And these groups also often hire PhDs
You may see opportunities with tech VCs who are trying to get into biotech. However they are all about networking / hustle and don't care too much about finance experience, and many of them are pretty new to biotech and don't compete for the top deals.
All of this results from a frothy and competitive biotech investing market. Biotech has become very hot and investors are increasingly focused on early-stage companies, which are basically science projects, and you are competing for jobs with tens of thousdands of PhDs who have 5-15 years of living and breathing science and are used to making $40-60K / year.
However, you are young, and there may well be a correction in the next few years, which will scare away a lot of the new money in biotech. In a market like that, there will be more attractive later stage opportunities and the pendulum will swing back towards finance skills being important. So for now, MBB consulting and BB HC banking would be really nice ways for you to learn about the space and develop your skills, and if the market swings, you're in a great position to pounce
Biotech startups can be hit or miss and I'd be extremely cautious in working for one (I've worked for a few and started a VC-backed biotech). The world of biotech startups is very have and have-not -- if you have a good management team, good investors and most importantly good science (which will attract good investors / mgmt) it can be the best experience of your life. However if you work at a company with an inexperienced team or some science that has holes in it you will wish you were in IB
bump to this. will a minor in something like that help at all. I'm already a junior so it would be shitty to redo my bachelor's under a science. gonna be at a specifically healthcare reputable shop. what can I do now to best position myself for a good spot in biotech VC. I have a minor in engineering at the moment.
bump
Thanks for the insight, does soffinova required to be a medical dr/phd?
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