Road to a Venture Capital Career: Practical Strategies and Tips to Break Into The Industry

prospective junior VC needs to be able to prove to a firm that he or she will be able to contribute from day one in order to get an offer. This means knowing the way around a capitalization table as well as how to understand standard terms in a term sheet.

PEHub’s PE Week Wire and Dan Primack’s Term Sheet are great ways to get tipped on when VC firms are raising new funds.

Give special attention/effort to firms that have recently raised a new fund somewhat larger than its last fund.

Give special attention/effort to firms that have recently had a personnel change.

Don’t get hung up on brand-name funds.

Regardless of where a firm invests in terms of stage, a junior VC will need to be conversant in how pre- and post-money valuations, liquidation preference, antidilution provisions, and other standard terms affect investor ownership and expected returns.

First and foremost, talk to every venture capitalist who is willing to take a call or informational interview.

If someone had leadership experience within a startup (i.e., running a functional area of the business or the business itself), that’s even better.

Come with one or more investment theses – The interviewee should develop one or more detailed investment ideas/theses and be prepared to discuss and defend them during the interview. This will require the interviewee to be up to date on relevant industry developments including recent fundings in the space, M&A activity, and product launches.