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Vault Message Board: Venture Capital

Topic Name: Getting a VC job after Undergrad
Message Name: buying lottery tickets
Date Posted: 05/03/2001
In Reply To: Making career decisions on the basis of who's "tier 1 or 2" today, -especially- in the VC industry, sums up to me why you're criticizing and not doing. VC, by definition, is a -growth- industry. Pick your partners carefully, work hard, and with a little luck, you'll have a winner that exceeds your losses. GS and MS got their starts somewhere- Apathy is a sin, not failure.
Message: If you really believe that you can walk out of school and understand how to pick a strong partner who hasn't taken a tier 1/2 opportunity, then good luck; you already beat the market once perhaps you should start your own fund. Contrary to popular belief, VC is NOT a growth industry, this is certainly true relative to the funding momentum inside the industry. VC is a sophisticated form of investing fundamentally limited by skillset, not capital. There are broad strategies, core competencies firm culture, and collective investing experience which lend a top VC the ability to sustain successful investments. The institutional formula is developed over time and experience. Mom and pop VC's we meet seem to believe that you can jump into the game with a 100m fund and start knocking down tenbaggers by walking companies through a checklist. Feel free to join them, I'm trying to help out here by pointing out that you will probably not get the opportunity to hop to a tier 1 later on. You could make partner on a losing fund though, there will be a lot of those. You're better off spending time developing competencies in the industry. Oh and by the way, I turned down offers from small shops, worked a coupls extra years, and am at a tier 1.

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