VCs tend to hire people with financial grounding and hence do not usually hire fresh graduates, hence a fresh college graduate who wishes to get the best possible training for an entry level job in VC would be to get a job in an investment bank or another financial services firm. Business school students would be well-advised to look for internships which would place them in regular contact with venture capitalists (either directly or through a portfolio company of a VC). Another alternative would be to take a job at a company backed by venture capitalists and glean exposure to the venture capitalists on the company’s board. Know VCs in the same geography in advance so that you are both top of mindshare and a known commodity when a position opens up. It is prudent to take a long term view and keep in mind that many VCs do not follow the "Apprentice model" (investment banking --> business-school --> VC) but have acquired years of operating experience, had a successful entrepreneurial stint as CEO, or was involved in building and growing companies. Leverage on your network to meet VCs. Figure out who you know who also knows VCs that you’d like to meet.
This is capitalising on the mere exposure effect, also nicknamed the "familiarity breeds liking" effect, a phenomenon well known to advertisers: people express undue liking for things merely because they are familiar with them.
80% of success is showing up. Know the calendar. As a VC, you want to meet innovators, but the innovators are already meeting in meetups, co-working groups, speaking events, and usergroups. Usually bandied in a close-knit network, these networks will be more accepting if the first time you meet them isn't when you're trying to sniff for deals and vulture around for something to shove money into. Bobby Chao of DFJ Dragon adds, “I strongly encourage each young person to start out early in making friends, helping the community, working in the fraternity and contributing in the professional associations. These are all the best kinds of networks.”
Attending events like TIEcon, where making the right connection is streamlined to a science, is helpful. Shital Mehta, who had "zero interest in being an entrepreneur," attended her first TiEcon as a 19-year-old college student in 2000. A panel of female entrepreneurs gave her a new calling and determination to avoid a conventional corporate career and she started a marketing and PR firm after graduation. "Within a year and a half, my firm grew to $1 million in revenue," Mehta said. "And three-quarters of my leads came from people involved in TiE in some way." [1] One would need to actively keep up with what's going on. [2] When fishing for deals, going to the ground is important. In one of Aesop’s fables’ stories, a fisherman skilled in music took his flute and his nets to the seashore. Standing on a projecting rock, he played several tunes in the hope that the fish, attracted by his melody, would of their own accord dance into his net, which he had placed below. At last, having long waited in vain, he laid aside his flute, and casting his net into the sea, made an excellent haul of fish. When he saw them leaping about in the net upon the rock he said: "O you most perverse creatures, when I piped you would not dance, but now that I have ceased you do so merrily."
By the way, I'm now using Twitter with great enthusiasm. You can follow me at www.twitter.com/gingkocapital.
[1] At TiEcon, it's all about making the connection. START-UPS PITCH THEIR IDEAS TO VC CROWD
By John Boudreau, Mercury News. Article Launched: 05/17/2008 01:43:10 AM PDT
