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Associate (London, $130m fund, 4YOE): £95k + 50% bonus
That's pretty good comp for a $130m fund in LDN
Any advice for recruiting into London firms? Seems a tough market atm
Brutal market in London at the moment unless you are a DEI hire. Keep hustling
Ana1, 120 all in
$150k + 10% bonus for every 1000 times you use the word AI
Analyst (San Francisco): $130K + synthetic carry
Thats solid. First Year? How large is the fund?
Slightly over $1 bln AUM across 5 funds
Did you enter straight out of undergrad?
Did one year stint in asset management prior to shifting to VC. Uncommon jump, but I had done a lot of startup work and growth equity internships in college that made it easier to justify my interest in VC.
That's really interesting, thanks for sharing. Did you go to a target? I'm thinking about such a path (doing a venture internship this summer), if you were to do it again knowing you wanted to end up in VC, how would you have approached things?
I went to UMich Ross. I knew I wanted to work in the startup/VC space actually from the get go, but I think I wasn't sure how to go about it for a while. Initially planned on doing IB > PE > then shift to VC, tried to also do VC summer analyst > full time analyst straight out of undergrad but both of those didn't pan out. Had my offer to a growth equity fund pulled due to COVID actually, so had to quickly re-recruit to asset management.
I would say the biggest key to breaking into VC is to step out of the typical "path focused" mindset. Don't be afraid to take risks. Go intern at a startup. Blog about industries you find fascinating. I stood out from other applying for a junior role because I could demonstrate my interest in this space in a sea of applicants that were just "summer financial analyst" at some corporate company. I had a post-Series B raise founder be one of my reference calls. I think if you want to work in VC long term, a lot of career decisions you make may make you less of a competitive candidate for IB or more traditional finance paths. So there's definitely a trade off.
While you're still in college, start getting in touch with your school's entrepreneurship network and resources. Feel free to cold email smaller VC shops and startups, and ask for an internship or part time role. Definitely reach out to other folks on WSO as well, there's a wealth of knowledge here.
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What is top pay for an Analyst or Associate typically? And how lucrative can VC be if you are at a top tier fund?
AI
I’m an Associate 1 at a VC shop in LA. Base 130, bonus 40%. 70 hour weeks and learning a ton.
Very similar pay and hours in NYC doing growth. I also have a small amount of carry allocation that has yet to vest.
At a $600M AUM (across 3 funds) shop in a T2 city. Second year Associate, Base $185K, with 25 bps of carry in Funds II & III.
Does your fund have discretionary bonus?
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