How To Get A Job In Venture Capital (From a Former VC!)

imagine this it's nine o'clock at night you're added drinks event and in walks a bright young kid named Mark Zuckerberg and he's building the hottest startup in town called Facebook it is growing like a weed it is definitely going to be the next billion dollar company and it's in this moment that you realize that you have one shot to shoot with Mark here to convince him that you're the right Venture Capital investor for him and Facebook and if you do so you stand to make hundreds of millions of dollars and submit yourself in the investing

Hall of Fame now that is the job of a venture capitalist now of course the daily realities of Vega VC are nowhere near that cinematic all the time but it is a pretty damn good job so I'm going to tell you about all the best parts about what it was like to work at a top VC firm [Music] so there are a couple good reasons as to why being a BC is one of the best shots out there and the number one reason is that you can make a lot of money so just as a

really ridiculous example of just how much money you can make as an early stage Venture investor let's look at Uber so Uber is a seedon at evaluation of around three million dollars so that means all the earliest stage investors who invested in Uber at the sea round who put in a 50 000 check made over 250 million dollars when Uber went public that is a 5 000 times return on your body like think about putting in fifty thousand dollars and getting 250 million dollars back so the average VC fund takes about 20 of the profits

that they make for their investors and if you're at a top fund that profit share can go all the way up to 30 to 40 of the profit so some of my bosses would have a 100 million dollar plus payday whenever they sold a company for over a billion dollars but it's not just money that's really exciting about the job the second reason being VC is really fun is that you get to be on the ground level of some of the world changing and Society redefining companies from the very start and help them grow and

just learn a ton through that process like imagine being on the ground floor of companies like uber Airbnb Facebook Instagram WhatsApp all these massive companies that you and all of your friends use all the time and getting to see those companies go through hyper growth and actually wildly enough getting to help them do that and so I at 24 years old as just an entry-level Junior associate at a top firm got to sit in on the board meetings of companies like that and actually help them analyze different situations and make really big strategic decisions and

so as a VC not only do you get to partake in funding and the economic upside of actually getting to participate in these world-changing startups but you also get to help build them and see their journey and that process is just honestly really fun now the last reason was actually my favorite part which is being a VC basically means you get paid to learn so as a VC in order to even know what to invest in you have to study the markets you have to understand how the world works and also more importantly how the

world doesn't work because that's where the investment opportunity actually is and so a lot of my days were just spent learning how the world Works within some specific Market segment and on top of that the best part is you get to constantly meet with the brightest entrepreneurs in the world out there who are pushing to innovate in those markets and they're constantly teaching about their market and how they're going to disrupt it and so you're basically paid to learn all the time to make the best decisions possible so with all that being said as I

pick up my doordash which is another billion dollar richer back startup how do you actually get a job in VC so let's talk about the bad news well because being a VC is so prestigious and pays so well there are only a few spots every year that thousands of people are competing for that's what that is now the good news is that your boy actually recruited for VC back in the day got hired and then once I got promoted started interviewing a ton of Associates so I'm going to share with you the three birdie Secrets

or steps that I wish I had known I was recruiting for VC back in the day that's going to help you land your dream role and those three steps are to build your street fed Network and then close the deal so what I mean by build your street cred well unfortunately VCS are pretty superficial people now the reality of their job is that they get thousands of emails every single day for people who want their money or want to work for them so you have to figure out what are you gonna do to actually get

on their radar because one of the main ways that VCS actually make early decisions to even decide whether or not to get on call with you is unfortunately through heuristics which is pattern matching around different societal stamps of approval that you have that actually recommends that you're worth their time so specific examples of that by the way look how dank these dumplings look specific examples of that include what university would do so did you go to Stanford or Harvard blah blah blah blah or what companies have you worked at have you worked at a great

startup like an Uber Airbnb or have you worked at a great Consulting your Finance firm like Coleman or McKenzie but what if you were a square and didn't end up at one of these universities or work at one of these top companies are you basically just screwed and not able to get a job in VC the good news is no you actually have a really great shot still to hustle your way into a job in VC and crush it and then at a top firm so this is what I would do if I was starting

from scratch so first I'd find some industry that you're super pictures without like for example AI or crypto and from there I would consume basically every piece of content Under the Sun about this specific industry to become an expert on the space so that means all blog posts podcasts YouTube videos Twitter threads basically edit thing you can to catch up on speed on this industry I would consume that because you're going to learn a ton from that and then what you're going to do is you're going to start reaching out for informational interviews with people

in that specific industry so I look up the top companies in the space and I'd start reaching out especially if you're a student via LinkedIn or cold emails asking for time with these people for informational interviews to learn more about their industry as well as what they think people should be solving in this specific space and then I would take all this knowledge that you're consuming and start creating content so one more content so what do I mean by content I need any form of content that you enjoy creating yourself so whether that's videos on

YouTube or Tick Tock or Instagram all the way to Twitter threads or LinkedIn posts or blog posts basically I want you to take all this knowledge you're learning I want you to summarize it and then start making insights and bets that actually inform your content and differentiate you in the market so one good example of some content you can start making is a market map which is basically just a list of all all the most interesting companies within your space and as you're starting to create this content I also want you to start simultaneously building

a network within your industry so what does that actually mean well let's say for example me where I'm really interested in the Creator company and I really want to start building a brand or some street cred on Twitter on top of creating this content I will also simultaneously be following all the top experts in the Creator economy that are on Twitter I'll be responding and interacting with all their tweets you'll also be finding the top PCS in the space that invest in a greater economy and start calling them as well because once you start interacting

with folks and you're also posting quality content you'll actually start to build a brand and some Streaker for yourself and I promise you if you commit to this process over even just a few months time you'll start to one build an audience but two start to have really hot takes in a good way in terms of creating interesting content on your specific industry so if you're consistent about this content creation process and really dive into your industry tree you will slowly but surely build credibility and street cred in your industry that VCS will start to

interact with and this is when you hit step two of the master plan which is networking AKA getting your foot in the door so I once you put yourself in the head of a 45 year old PC now what is this VC let's call him Jim what is jip carradol Jim cares about two things number one is making a lot of money and number two is being seen by his peers as one of the best VCS out there unfortunately right now the reality is that Jim does not care at all about you especially if you're

sending him generic informational interview requests because he is not going to respond to that because he constantly struggles with getting way too many emails so the question becomes how are you going to stick out for the crowd and break through the noise and get gem to give you a great job well let's anchor back to the problems that Jen has now jammered wants to make more money and seem core amongst his peers and so you are going to show up in his life as someone who could help them solve both problems because I guarantee you

if you were to say for example say it I found the next Facebook gem I'll get you in on the deal 100 whatever that company is she'd love to talk to and he's gonna take a look at you but wow thank you so much for this opportunity so your job is to start proving to Jim that you can actually Source him the best deals and also give him street cred for hiring well good thing you're already starting to build street cred because you're posting content and becoming an expert in your space and so now is

the perfect time to slide into gems DMS and I want you to write an email something like this start with the subject line that shows that you've done your research on this specific VC and have a genuine interest in what they do so in this example you could write something like thoughts on your creator economy blog post and then you can start your email out with something like hey Jim I loved your recent blog post on the Creator con and in fact it's been awesome to watch you start to build your portfolio in the space

with leading companies like patreon and Stan and now that you've piqued his interests and Amelia clay to his ego you can start inserting your own value and showcase why you are worth Jim's time so in this context because you've been consistently creating content on let's say the Creator economy you can start to Showcase all you've done in the industry and this tease you up for the last part of this email which is also the last step of this process which is to close the deal this is where you start adding an immense amount of value

to Jim's life and there are actually a ton of ways you can help them out you could offer to help them Scout New Deals now what that means is because you started building your network and also you're starting to research a specific industry you're learning a lot more about what the best companies are and also starting to learn about all the startups that are popping up in the space that then you can source as potential deals for these VCS and on top of that because you've been following this market so intensely you can offer to

provide free research or diligence to help this VC develop a more nuanced perspective on this specific industry and offering this kind of value is something that VCS are really going to look for especially when you are an expert or have street cred in a specific space and now that you've opened the door where the VC is interested in you working with them you now over the nest you once get to prove yourself and your hustle while you get to work with actual VCS and build up your resume now whether it's with this specific VC or

a bunch of other firms that you're also a relationship with you get to start proving to them that you can hustle to get into the best deals and you also have the knowledge to invest in the very best companies as well because you don't want to lose their money and once you really start proving yourself you're going to start to have these relationships with some of the top VCS and from there you can say Hey you know I see you have an opportunity I'd love to get to work with you full time and Bam just

like that is how you catalyze a full-time role as a VC all right that was a lot of info and I definitely struggled to eat my food while trying to tell you all of that but I guarantee you that's all you need to make it into VC without any prior connection so I'm gonna finish my food so I could finish my work and go home for the day but make sure to like And subscribe so that YouTube and show you more of my videos where I would be releasing videos on how to actually make it

in business and how to raise money for your startup so that you can crush it in your own career so I'll see you later [Music] thank you