How to move from IB to VC?

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MM sounds solid, studio sounds cool - do you have prior full time experience or are they both for first time job opps?

And whats your risk/reward tolerance?

These are the type of questions that i use to breakdown similar decisions lmao

If you want to go into VC - venture studios are a great step (some are even better final destinations than traditional funds $ wise…unless you want later stage VC/leading towards GE almost cause you want modeling/quantitative experience. But in all early stage venture (studios, pre-seed/seed, series A) all of that will be qualitative. So that’s one question - 1) what’s stage do you wanna be in?

Second question - do you like SaaS? Are you into that or do you want to go into another area.

Third question - how’s this studio been doling? who founded it/ who’s the leadership team? Whats they’re track record been like - any sense of average valuations of the companies they incubate and how many go on to get subsequent funding?

Also in general to the rest of the thread - to get into VC and stand apart try to get some experience writing out your investments memos on companies in an industry you like and if you can try to angel invest in some early stage companies within that vertical - this helped me a lot especially in terms of just networking and talking about the space I was interested in AND that firms I targeted were involved in.

CTVC’s advice was great. Will try to add a few additional considerations:

• Depending on size of fund, more junior professionals below VP/Principal may not have much influence hiring wise. But it’s still good for you to network with different people, cause it gives you perspective on the lingo, job, environment, etc. Also, I find different funds have different styles - some firms can have analysts/associates just run a lot of the sourcing, but other places may not. YMMV depending on shop and style
• VC as you already know is very networking oriented, so staying connected to people at different levels and firms (and letting them know you’re looking) means they may also point you to other places hiring before the postings come out.
• But these days, there are also a lot of postings too - and usually at the associate pre- and post-MBA. See John Gannon’s VC blog for instance
• If you’re not already doing this, read tech news daily. And/or check out a few podcasts. A little bit everyday to chip away at it. It’ll give you an idea on trends and what’s going on. You want to be able to speak the lingo and provide thoughtful opinions, or be able to engage in good conversations when you do get in front of people
• Consider casting a wide net. I think you mentioned wanting to look early stage (B or earlier)? With VC, the later you go, the more likely you’ll see IB type profiles (whereas earlier stages - pre-seed, seed, A…) you may get more operating and entrepreneurial backgrounds. I think naturally, you’ll have more luck with later stage (B and beyond) funds because it’s more quantitative (as you’ll have more in the way of metrics and numbers). If you’re focusing earlier, you would need to demonstrate how/why your profile allows you to be helpful to them and entrepreneurs somehow.
• Casting a wider net also means potentially being open to looking at things like corporate VCs (CVCs). Or even maybe considering mobility from within your IB to tech/Fintech focus. This can be a stepping stone for the VC firm you want down the road. If you take a look at some profiles, it's not uncommon for people to move in 1-2 years.