Hey everyone. We’re three venture capital investors at three different funds across the US. How can we be helpful? Bios: @NDAsonly - I’m a growth stage software VC based in New York City. I specialize in B2B SaaS investments and I’m vertical agnostic in the category. @50%IRR - I’m a stage agnostic venture investor in California. I lead our investments under the broad umbrella of consumer, from gaming to marketplaces to ecommerce. @10xMoM - I’m an early stage software investor on the East coast. I worked at a software private equity fund on the West coast prior to joining my current VC fund. I focus on B2B SaaS companies in various horizontals (namely DevOps). Happy to answer any questions on the industry, startups, investing, recruiting, etc! We’ll all be live and actively answering questions from ~5 PM PST until ~9 PM, but we’ll try address as many questions as we can even after today. [UPDATE]: Thanks everyone! We had a good time answering questions, but we’ll be signing off now. We’re sorry if you couldn’t get to your question, but maybe we can do another one down the line. Have a great day! #AMA #vc #pe #buyside
What’s a VC life like? Always busy? Too busy to take time for life?
Depends on the culture of the fund. I’d say it’s pretty chill most days considering that as a junior VC all you really do is take calls and support diligence cycles. But be prepared to do work on weekends if you’re in a deal cycle.
ya agree with this, completely variable and dependent on the fund. Ours is pretty chill. Generally 9-6, no weekends
Do you know people that you work with that transitioned from tech/eng to becoming a VC? What type of background do you need?
Yea I’d say there are more PM’s in the industry than SWEs
Ya 100%, very common. Many SF funds prefer technical backgrounds
What's the salary structure?
TC split into base + bonus that's anywhere between 50-100% of base on top. Also many places also have additional bonuses for deals you source as well. Associates can make anywhere between $100-150k base and maybe $50-100k bonus, plus additional deal bonuses.
I should add that this is all highly variable dependent on fund size. Obviously bigger funds means more management fees to support higher salaries.
Do you have scout programs or part time roles? Would love to get in the game and prove myself.
We do have a structured scout program, but it's for undergrads to help us source consumer businesses. Assuming that's not a fit for you, there might be something that's we can do unstructured if there's a fit/interest--wanna dm me?
What is your background? Are you a SWE?
TC and yoe for VC?
Just answered this above: "Depends on how many deals I close this year, but last year I made a little under $200K with 1 YOE" TC structure is highly variable depending on deals source + exits for my fund
Is coming from FAANG seen as an advantage or disadvantage? Also, in true Blind spirit, TC or GTFO
Depends on how many deals I close this year, but last year I made a little under $200K with 1 YOE
Depends on the role, but PMs and higher ranking roles at FAANGs are generally seen in a positive light. 1 YOE $120K
I'm a software dev and want to get into VC. Do I need to get an MBA to get into this line of work?
There are pre-MBA analyst/associate roles at some VCs it just takes some work to find which ones
Nop, def not. Just learn to source and cold email deals to partners until you get an interview
What are some unobvious but interesting trends you're tracking?
Obvious to everyone that's in it, but I could not be more bullish on mobile gaming right now, and only ~5 funds are playing this seriously
Remote collaboration tools. Lol jk. I’ve been looking into mortgage lender software lately. Who knows how the next few quarters are going to play out with home owners, but there’s going to be a tough time using traditional measures to assess credit worthiness.
I’m a triple major, Computer Engineering, Business, Economics, I’ve worked at startups as an engineer, I think I could do well in the vc scope, what are the most important skills to develop?
Sales + finance is all you need. Depending on the fund, not even the finance part lmao (i.e. early stage VCs that do almost no diligence)
Definitely learning how to assess businesses from a high level and quickly understand if it has potential to become an enormous ($1B+) outcome
How did you become a VC? Was it straight out of college? What was the recruitment process like?
I broke into the industry directly after undergrad, the recruitment process for undergrad prospects is definitely unstructured. I basically called emailed every VC fund under the sun and tried to find out which ones were hiring and which ones were not. I got lucky by finding a fund that hires directly out of college.
I joined a VC fund after going through the traditional finance route. Worked in private equity prior. Recruiting process is fairly loose and VC funds don't typically hire "classes" or by a schedule. Very ad-hoc, so it's more important to stay close to the industry so you can hear when a spot opens up.