What role is "Investor" at a firm like Bain Capital Ventures?
I was recently contacted by a partner at Bain Capital Ventures to apply to interview for an "Investor" position. I'm a new graduate though and I'm looking through LinkedIn and the only people who have this title have like 2-3 YoE at a Bank or PE, or have founded their own company. Is there a role before Investor at Bain Capital Ventures?
I have a few connections there and the industry role they want me to cover but I am a new graduate and have zero banking or PE experience or founder experience. I do have a large industry following and a lot of connections to founders in the area they want me to cover, but I also have a few offers from trading firms and never really thought about VC. Kind of just curious what the "Investor" role is and if I'm stupid for turning Bain Capital Ventures down for Wintermute if I want to do trading over VC.
I would stick with trading. Markets / valuations are going to go nowhere for the next ten years so honestly investing won't be a hot ticket. on the flip side, trading (esp macro / commodities) will be quite lucrative
That's what I'm thinking right? The volatility is nice for market-makers and prop trading firms with some really sick upside available at the junior level. For VC I feel like most of the upside is realized at the top over a longer period of time with carry vested as a senior employee. Additionally, I think the volatility is a lot worse for a longer-term investing firm that can't really take too much advantage or hedge an "equity stake" as opposed to the prop firms.
that's called grooming
Is this a venture term or does it just mean a senior took interest in a new graduate who has an edge in a growing market right now and thinks they'll grow better than an experienced hire?
It just means he wants your ass
I’m connected to a lot of the founders of projects they’re invested in through meeting them at conferences and events and had a year long internship at a pretty well known crypto-native firm.
There were also a couple of articles written about myself by my school on top of two efinancialcareers articles about some of my achievements in the space and research and campus involvement I’ve had.
I've seen this on the buyside as well, internally they're an "associate" but outwardly they're all "investors"
I've seen this at other large firms and some VC firms too. I think it's just the latest career buzzword buyside people are throwing around. It likely means you're a PE associate or higher and you've had the opportunity to either sit on a portco board or maybe throw a small % of your salary into the pot. It might even mean they're simply acting as an investor (evaluating investments) on behalf of the firm (although this title seems dishonest). At the end of the day it's just another senseless, pretentious way of differentiating yourself within an industry obsessed with prestige and micro-flexing. Similar to how everyone at McKinsey simply refers to it as "The Firm".
For example, IB analysts on LinkedIn all used to be called "Financial Analysts" but then other types of finance jobs starting calling themselves "Financial Analysts" so IB analysts had to specify, differentiate, and now everyone's an "Investment Banking Analyst" because god forbid they associate themselves with those who do "lesser" work.
I suspect this is a buyside version of the same thing, differentiating themselves from those who label themselves "Private Equity Analysts" but in reality aren't in a direct investing capacity. Give it a few years and I'll bet you start to see this more often
The title is intentionally vague to help juniors with sourcing. At my old firm we had Analyst -> Associate -> VP -> Principal -> MD titles and we had the Analysts sourcing. Sometimes founders would see their tenure and reply, "I'm happy to connect but I'll want to talk to a Partner". At my current firm everyone is a Partner so we don't have that issue. I agree it's annoying and kind of a meaningless title, but in a world where getting access to top founders is the name of the game if you can change titles to remove a potential hurdle to getting an intro call, you do it.
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