Reneging on mid tier BB for late-stage VC offer?
Hey everyone so I’m currently on a very tough situation regarding FT opportunities. I interned this summer at a mid tier BB (think BofA, Citi) and recently accepted my FT offer there given that my timeline expired. I just got an offer at a late stage VC that is still up and coming. There is definitely more career risk involved but I have worked with them before and enjoy the type of work and the work/life balance compared to what is expected in IB. The pay is exactly the same as the analyst level and I’m therefore heavily considering it. Will it be extremely bad to renege my offer with the bank? How should I be thinking about this? I wish it hadn’t come to reneging and I stalled my offer as much as I could but given the current environment I had to accept.
I would say reneging is bad but it's not the end of the world. If you really like this VC opportunity as opposed to being an analyst at the BB, I would take it.
Another thing I'd say is to be clear with the VC people about potential career progression within the firm. Last thing you want is to work for 2 years with them, then get kicked out the door.
personally don't think you build too unique of skills at jr level at a VC shop (heavy sourcing, highly iterative, barely any learning curve)
Better to do banking and gain some real skills, then apply to VC (as they won't teach u the same skills unlike a PE analyst program). I'd heavily recommend against going VC early for that reason but u do u. Good shops are good but u really aren't learning enough tbh, yeah you get touch points learning and running origination and all that but not worth it. My 0.02
***Assuming u got an offer at Insight Partners***
Insight is not "up and coming." That said, VC shops at the junior level are very heavy sourcing and often very siloed -- as in it would be tough to transition to anything else. I also believe that a solid IB job will teach you the necessary hard skills to progress further in VC, GE, PE, HFs, or whatever else you decide. You may decide once you do banking that public markets interest you, and banking gives you that optionality, while VC does not. I assume this shop is actually something like ICONIQ, but if OP can specify a slightly more narrow range I can be more helpful.
it is up and coming for late stage, a more recent focus.
obvi they're in the mix for early stage but from what I know expanding into later stage. so up and coming for later stage investments
def go with Banking first then VC. It’ll give you the hard financial modeling and transaction knowledge/skills that you can then apply to a career in VC after two years or so as in analyst at the mid-tier BB. No reason to rush into VC if you’re not being forced to by someone else.
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