How is working at a Student-run VC firm viewed by recruiters and in the FInance space in general?

I'm unsure if I'm wasting my time doing this. I'm interning at a student-run VC firm, and I want to know if I'm doing the right things. I'm a rising Sophomore at a non-target. Part of the plan has been transferring to a target school, but I also want to make sure that I give myself a proper foundation. Assuming things pan out, I can recuperate all the opportunities I lost. I also want to know what's the next step. Should I start looking for internships at different companies during the Fall of my Sophomore year? Should I start dedicating all of my time recruiting? I just don't know if I'm doing the right things or if Im utilizing all of my opportunities.

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They’re all very different, and the baseline is probably to assume that it’s not a “real” VC experience. How big is the fund? Are students/recent alum your GPs? Do you have to get approval from school on investments? To your returns go to LPs or is the endowment your LP?

I was at a student fund that was completely autonomous, not linked to the school at all, our LPs were alumni we raised from and GPs were seniors at the time who then oversaw the fund the rest of its life. We didn’t need to get approval from anyone other than majority of our investment team to make an investment. Just raised another fund. So it was as real if a VC experience as you can get at a student run VC, and if you explain this to people they are impressed (if you know fund structure, fund economics, term sheet terminology, SAFEs, etc)

 

Right so this fund was pretty autonomous from the school. All the investments that were made were all made to an investor board, which is a group of analysts and associates at various VC funds. In terms of what to invest in, it’s decided by a fund-wide vote. With our returns, I am pretty sure they go back to the fund. If you’d want more information to make a better judgement the student fund is called “University Growth Fund”

 

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