Breaking into Venture Capital

Is anyone here involved in VC? I'm incredibly, incredibly interested in the industry and would love to learn about anyone's experiences.

I'm primarily interested in the early stages where the focus is on evaluating the startup's product/service, the market for said product/service, and the management team.

Please share your experiences and knowledge!

Thanks!

That's probably the case for the West coast, but I'm primarily interested in NYC VCs. Also, my understanding is that VCs much prefer consultants over I-bankers.

I'm just scared that any pre-MBA VC role is automatically a sourcing role where you're just cold-calling CEOs for investment pitches. Now, sourcing in and of itself isn't unappealing -- in fact, I find the type of sourcing role where you're given the autonomy to come back with a couple investment ideas and pitches to be much, much more appealing. Cold calling? Not so much.

Yeah, I went to a pretty decent school. Not an Ivy, but a top LA college. Def. have searched for alumni in the industry and can't really find any because our alumni network is pretty weak, IMO. Just need to search harder I guess.

Thanks for the data points. Quick question -- what's WC?

But I think you're right. Not only is it going to be tough to break into VC in the first place, but it'll probably be even tougher to get the type of gig I'm looking for. Le sigh.. I'm sure the opportunity is out there, though .

I have 1.5 years of work experience now and will have 2 by this summer, which is when I want to make a move. I'm optimistic, though, as my research is showing that VC firms prefer people with a consulting background over IB.. but we'll see.

Ah, I meant LA as in liberal arts. Went to a school in Massachusetts