PE/VC in a random city (non-NYC/CHI/LA/SF)

I've worked with a few PE firms that are not in big cities (or their suburbs.) Usually a bulk of the people at these firms are originally from the area, so the benefit to them is low COL, pay relatively commensurate with similar firms (i.e. really high for mid-tier cities), and they get to go back home. The biggest challenge that you'll face is:

1. Do you actually want to live there? It's hard enough to move to a new city where you don't know a lot of people (if any), and it's even harder when it's not a destination for a lot of other people your age.

2. Convincing the firm that you do want to move there, as they're going to be strongly biased toward people from whatever city you're looking at.

why do you want to go to a no name city? I live in what this board would call a no name city for PE/VC but there's a couple of firms here. the thing is they're biased towards people from the area or who attended schools in the area. ask yourself why you want to move and let us know the answer.

I work in a no-name city, under 500,000 in the midwest.

There are almost no "employees" at these firms. Its pretty much the GPs and a few managing directors, if that.

Salaried roles are fairly non-existent. You are expected to have significant operating experience as well as founder/exit experience.

That said, if an opportunity arises, check it out. The investment scene is changing, LPs are becoming less conservative.

The typically model isn't to invest in 100 companies and see what sticks. The model is usually 4-8 investments a year, with each company being a double, not a home run. Some areas haven't seen exits in a long time, especially university towns dependent of biotech. So, successful funds will focus on quick exits.