Want to break into Biotech/Medical Device Venture Capital

A couple years ago it was more common to see non MD/DO/PhDs in the healthcare VC landscape. what you need to do is work for a startup as head of Business Development. Close a few big deals, once you do that you will probably meet a few VCs in the process and if you get a long with them you can ask for advice, help, a job, etc.

I work in biotech and have spoken to a few partners at notable east coast life science VC firms (Third Rock, MPM, Polaris). In speaking with the partners, a common theme kept cropping up, which was startup experience, startup experience, and startup experience. Very rarely do life science VC firms hire directly out of grad school/b-school. Of course it happens, I know a postdoc at MIT who was hired directly as an associate, and I know a grad student who was hired directly out of a harvard program, and occasionally they'll hire associates directly out of the very top elite bschools (Sloan/HBS/Stanford). But aside from that, life science VC firms almost require that their new hires have operational experience at a startup (and have gotten some positive outcome, whether IPO or sale). Problem with biotech startups that are developing a therapeutic is that they take sooo long from founding to exit, because the trials themselves take so long. So the path to VC is an arduous one.

I'm on the long path there, might not happen for a few years, but we'll see!

In terms of suggestions for your path, your job in the pharma advisory practice would position you very well for a startup in a strategy/commercial development role. A startup would certainly value your big 4 pharma advisory experience in understanding regulations, supply chain effectiveness, medical product life cycles, etc. Then just get a great exit! (yeah easier said then done, I know!)

My understanding is that biotech VC is one area where you actually need to know a lot about the science to do well. It's hard to have any insights into whether a certain approach to curing a disease will work if you have no background in biology or medicine.

Business skills are not really hard to pick up (anyone doing investment banking already has them) but they are necessary as well.

In general your best bet is to have a bio/medical background and then do a business-related job like banking.

Well you would have to have some business knowledge to start a biotech VC firm. Where can you just "pick it up."

double post.

If you want to work at a biotech VC firm, you will need a combination of bio/medical background and business experience. The bio/medical background is best gained in an academic setting; the business background is best gained via banking/consulting etc.

If you want to START a biotech VC firm, that is essentially out of reach until you have 10-15+ years of experience in the field and have started your own company successfully before. Typically VC firm founders come from an operational background and many of the most successful partners at VCs started companies themselves.

To even think about starting a VC firm, you would need a large network of contacts, serious experience (not just a 2 year analyst program, that wouldn't even be close), and support from institutional investors who would give you money to invest.

An undergrad degree with a major in bio is absolutely not enough. In any case a lot of "healthcare" groups at VC funds invest in medical devices (and not just biotech drugs). So you need to have at least a MS in Biomedical Engineering or a PhD in Biology/Biochem to be considered for a healthcare VC position. Coming out of undergrad is only feasible in Internet VC groups. Even communications/networking heavy VCs demand at least a master's in a technical field like telecommunications engineering, VCMonkey