Transaction v. industry experience for growth equity

Figured I'd throw this out to the WSO crowd.

Looking to hopefully transition either pre-MBA or post-MBA to a growth equity fund. Background to date is in F500 corporate strategy with some due diligence experience but more on the commercial side (i.e. I didn't necessarily own the financial model).

Is it basically a deal breaker if I don't have transaction experience (IB, Corp Dev, etc.)? Or would funds view deep industry knowledge + strategy background favorably?

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