How Big Should a VC Firm be if I join out of undergrad?
I'm planning to go into VC out of undergrad, and I was hoping that people would be able to give me advice on what point it is better to cut my losses and go into a different role. My current opinion is that if I am able to get a position at either a very well known firm (highly publicized in the VC world) or a firm with an AUM north of $150mm, I should take the role. Anything less than that, and I should probably keep looking.
What do you guys think? Would a firm with $75mm AUM even be worth my time of day? The firm where I intern is north of $300mm just in VC , and they probably have $600mm on their pure PE side (PE not including VC). I just don't know if I'll get a full-time offer or not.
Comments ( 5 )
VC is not and will not be a structured career path to start out with. Unless your aspirations are to build a network and eventually launch your own company, being a professional VC out of undergrad makes little sense.
India is the third largest VC market in the world and even here almost all top spots at large VC funds are flooded with ex- MBB folks. Most do a couple years of MBB /Banking/Industry jobs and try to become partners to gain the upside from investing in startups. They also at least get higher pay since the partners, who were probably ex-MBB/Bankers themselves know that they have large outside options. You may not get the same pay.
However, network plays a big role and if you are really successful and build a wide reach you may have no issues starting your own fund/moving to a new startup as an operator/raising money for your own business. But, I am pretty sure this will take 5-10 years.
Thanks for the reply, and I understand where you are coming from with going into VC right out of undergrad. The main reason I want to pursue this is that I have both a financial and energy storage engineering education that a lot of VC firms are really interested in. I've received a lot of positive feedback because I can meaningfully communicate between technical experts and the financial team, and their LPs. Though I do not add value in my ability to make assessments in their own right in either area, I am capable of facilitating what I believe to be a very meaningful value add in the "translation" between both areas.
Go for it then. But, only if you are passionate about the industry and space. However, I guess my point of not having that cushy consulting/banking salary and exit opp still stands. Eventually you will need to take a risk to make it big by joining a startup/launching your own which in my opinion will be easy for you to do since you have the background.
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