Lessons - Getting a Job in Venture Capital | John Gannon - Co-Founder of Going VC

So I guess the question is, you teach these things probably in the cohort in the newsletter, but what are some tips for people that do want to get a job in venture capital? What do they need to do because you mentioned it's not an easy process? Yeah, so if you want to dig into a bit around how I just want to actually get a venture capital job, one thing I like to talk about is what I call the five-legged stool. And the five-legged stool is really a way to think about what are the most important things to a VC, because if you put yourself in their shoes, you're going to be in a much better position to understand what they need, what they want, and how to add value to them. And so in terms of what are those five legs, one of those things that VC's care about. So one of the most important things is deal flow. So, combining companies that are investable and ideally finding those companies before other people do. Before it gets competitive. So that's one aspect. There's also for their existing portfolio companies, another leg of the stool is, and as in helping those existing companies go out and raise more money. So if I'm Quiner Perkins and I do a series A in a company, a company's probably going to need a series B, right? And there's going to be an investor that's going to write that series B chat. And so being able to assist in terms of helping other companies that have already raised venture money, kind of go to that next round is another important piece of the job of being a VC. And if you can help VC with that through your network, that's another big value ad. The third is around the investors in the venture capital fund themselves. So they're called limited partners. And so limited partners could be kind of worth individuals, but if you look at like really big venture funds like the Sequoias and the Quiner Perkins, they're getting their money from large endowment, university endowment, folks like the Rockefeller Foundation, right? Like a lot of these really large long scanning institutions are ones that are investing in venture capital. And so if you as a job speaker through your network and access to people in those worlds or high net worth individuals who are interested in investing in venture funds or in startups, that can definitely be a value ad, particularly for newer funds, which are earlier on in their journey where they've not necessarily locked up the Princeton down to write them $20 million check, but maybe they're raising a $5 million fund. And so someone who can write 100K check is actually quite meaningful to them, right? So that's another area in terms of ad and value. Hiring is another piece. So if I'm a VC and I've got maybe I'm on the board of 678 companies, one of the most important things that I'm trying to do is make sure that company is staffed properly, has a best talent. And although I'm not directly responsible for it, my CEOs of those companies that I work with are going to kind of expect that I'm going to be sending them really high quality folks who can potentially become employees or executives at those companies. And so if you can help with that through your personal network, that's another way you can add value to a VC straight away. And then there's a kind of a fifth bucket which is around business development sales and M&A, which is if you can help a VC's portfolio get in front of people who can buy their products, buy their company or otherwise partner, that's a big value add as well. So as a job seeker, it's kind of up to you to like inventory your network and your skills and your interest and figure out out of those five legs. You're not going to knock all of them on the part, but there's probably a couple that you would kind of gravitate to or have a strengthen. And those are the things that you'd want to lean on in terms of how you want to conduct your search and sort of which firms you might want to approach with what kind of pitch. And then how would you deliver value to them to really show them before you even have a job that you're someone who could actually do the job? For some jobs, it seems like a simple project or something could show some sort of value to a hiring manager, but for a venture capital firm, would it be an introduction to somebody? I guess it depends on what value you bring to the table, but it seems like it's a big ask before you even sit down with somebody to show value. So you have an idea of how you could do that? To make sure I understand the question you're asking, how specifically can a candidate show value in one of those areas? Yeah, sure. So the old flow is a great one to talk about because it's one that's critical right to a VC. They have to make new investments so they need to deal flow. They need to be ideally getting to these companies before other folks do. And so an example would be maybe you went to the school with a bunch of folks who out of that group, there's a few who maybe they started their own businesses while they were in school. Or maybe they were just like insanely smart and they were the kind of people where you look at it and you said, you know, that person is they're going to really do great things in their career. So if you are in touch with those kinds of people from to be your child, doing to be from your college experience, I think people you work with previously kind of keeping tabs on what they're working on. And if you see them working on a new thing that looks like something that could fit into the venture back start-up space, i.e. a software company, an internet company, right, those types of things, then if you're trying to build relationships with C, those are the kind of folks where you want to try to be that connection basically between the people from your network and the VC because it's very compelling if you're starting to develop our relationships with a VC, to be able to come to them and say, hi, you know, this is I'd like to introduce you to my friend Jen. She started this amazing software company. She was at the top of our class at Penn State and, you know, I really wouldn't highly recommend that you choose to look at this company. And oh, by the way, they've already got some paying customers or, you know, whatever the case may be in terms of their status. Like, that is a great way to both deepen a relationship with a VC, but also, it can give you a reason to get in touch with VCs as well. One of the things that I talk a lot about, and we focus on our going VC program is acknowledging what we call an investment thesis. And an investment thesis is really your sort of unique view on a certain sector or market. And by sort of a well-defined view, what I mean by that is having the ability to deep dive on that entire sector, the companies that are in that sector, both the big ones that are maybe public and also the smaller ones that are just getting funded and everyone in between. And then having a really specific angle in terms of which types of companies in that sector, you would invest in and why. So as someone who's trying to get in touch with VCs or get them interested, it's also quite compelling to actually create almost in a written form, which commonly you might see a 15, 20-slot debt that really articulates that thesis. And now that I've seen folks in our program create these investment thesis, sort of document them, and then share the amount I've linked in. And I just emailed my list about this actually a couple of days ago. There was a team of folks who were in my going DC program, two people. They created an investment thesis around AgTech. They posted it. And the post got over 30, I checked the other day, got over 30 comments and over 100 reactions. And even got an inbound, at least one inbound and feeling when I know about there could be more. From a VCs, you said, hey, I saw the investment thesis. I'm a little confused, right? Which is what you want. But that is going the other way where they're coming to you, which is obviously superior to you going in and sort of asking someone if they have any kind of opportunity.