Thoughts on Thiel’s VC Funds?
He has quite a few, including the Founders Fund. But, whether unintentionally or by design, his firms have low headcount. How does someone break into firms like these? Based on a quick run through of employee base, Founders does not seem to value / require IB. How is comp, WLB, culture, etc?
Founders Fund is one of the strongest early stage VC funds out there. Doesn’t matter what the comp, WLB, or culture is like. If you somehow get an offer, you would know well enough that you should take it in a heartbeat. And of course banking is not a pre-requisite, some of these folks have far more interesting stories and impressive paths. Also the skill set of a banker is far better suited for late stage venture / growth equity where there’s more diligence and data, but that’s a whole different story.
How do you recommend breaking into founders or other Thiel funds? What skills are they looking for? For context, I have no CS skills, but have worked on software / tech deals.
Honestly, there are so many ways to break into VC, but I'd say the most surefire way is to be an early employee at a high profile company that has a successful exit. Easier said than done, obviously, and involves a lot of risk.
Bumping
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They hire experienced startup operators.
Re: the small size, my understanding is that FF and related Funds are incredibly ruthless with their time and what they will / will not do.
This does mean that there are limited joining slots and limited moving up slots. But as one of the other posters said, incredible experience to leverage into another role.
Bro, one of them is like a 33x TVPI fund. Can't remember how much the DPI is, maybe like 10x - it's a ripper for sure. Everything that guy touches is gold.
You have to meet someone at the firm, get to know them over a long time, and they will interview you periodically. Apparently the process takes 18 mo or longer, and they only hire people they think are exceptional. Geoff Lewis of Bedrock talked about this on The Blog of Jake podcast if you're at all interested. But to start off at all would require you to meet these people and be interesting enough in a conversation that they would consider hiring you.
If you want evidence of this being their strategy, look at the current principals at the fund. Luttig was the president of the Stanford Review, which Thiel founded during his undergrad years and has a known relationship with both FF and 8VC (Joe Lonsdale's fund). Delian was a Thiel Fellow and was former Chief of Staff for Keith Rabois, who is a PayPal Mafia member and a GP at FF. Randle is ex-Vista and ex-KP. The last dude is ex growth equity and led some crazy investments.
So basically, be someone interesting first, meet Thiel or another GP at a cocktail party and hope for the best.
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