Entry level VC roles will involve spending most of your day hunting for deals solo. You will search for outbound leads by networking, following the news and using databases like Crunchbase. You will set up meetings with them and inbound leads when you find them. Every now and then when you find a company you like, you will spend a few weeks running a due-diligence process for them and if it goes through, setting up and structuring the deal under the guidance of a firm partner.
Investing roles are great for people who want to build their networks and spend a lot of their day speaking to people, whilst also learning about different businesses and honing their ability to make good decisions with limited data.
If you don't love the idea of spending a lot of time networking and doing sales to find new deals, VC may not be for you.You may also want to reconsider if you like working in a team. As a VC you'll mostly be a lone wolf, apart from the occasional due-diligence process.
Moving out of VC can be tricky. Unless you move to some other investment role, the skills you learn aren't directly transferrable to most other functional roles and so there is often a steep learning curve. Think carefully about how committed you are to this path before starting on it.
You have 1) bonus - usually about 50% of your salary per year, and 2) carry - which is a % of what the fund returns to investors when it exits (or earlier in some cases). This usually vests over 3-6 years and can be worth a few hundred thousand per year. Note that not all firms offer carry to junior roles.
Promotion cycles in VC teams can be slow (~3 years) because of how small the teams tend to be. You will also be working as a solo operator for many years and not learn the skills needed to lead a team.
An entry-level VC role is a unique mix of sales, networking and analysis. Most of these are only directly valuable in another investing role. Sometimes investors leverage their knowledge of startups to move into founder or operator (e.g., product) roles, but there is a steep learning curve.
You will connect with founders from dozens of businesses a year and often build meaningful professional relationships with them that you can lean on later in your career.
VC roles can be intense when a hot deal comes through that you want to close quickly. However, most of the time you will be doing normal hours whilst searching for new deals and networking.
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