RFID Industry to VC?
So a friend is looking to move in VC and asked me (as the "Wall Street guy he knows") for advice, but I couldn't know less about the banking/PE/VC side of things, so I'm turning to you all to help me out...
The person in question is a middle-aged (late 40s?) guy who is an engineer-turned-manager (B.S. from decent school, MBA from non-target). He has about 10 years experience at a large RFID company and most recently another 5-10 years experience as head of US sales/operations for an RFID startup (~50-100 employee), where I think he has been rather successful.
Now he wants to move to the other side of the table and work directly for a VC firm instead of a startup. What's the best way to go about this? Are there certain VC firms that might be more interested in someone with 20 years in industry than someone fresh out of IB? Any help would be much appreciated. If you need more details about his situation, let me know and I'll see what I can find out.
Thanks!
As he stands right now, no. If he has a thick roll-e-deck of VC's that he's worked closely with and know his ability and more importantly net worth then yes.
There's no set in stone path to VC except two things: a lot of money and notoriety. Case in point:
The typical VC partner is a H/MIT/S CS grad with some initial successful mix of starting a successful startup, consulting, or banking. Either continued success in startups or HBS/Stanford MBA's get looks as potential partners. Most if not all VC funds at the venture partner level on up require that you "buy-in" Visa vi contribute to the fund from personal money's.
Celeberities such as Bono and Ashton Kutcher are both deploy VC money. It's not just their money that gets them there it's the fact that much of a startup's value can be attributed to the hype surrounding it. So when Ashton invested in Blekko couple weeks back, their page views soared simply do to the fact that he attached his name to it.
So if your "friend" can add value financially but also simply by putting his name behind a startup, he's got a decent chance.
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