I received offers at two multi-billion AUM SF-based VC funds while at Goldman Sachs. Both came through conversations I initiated — not through formal recruiting cycles. What follows is how that actually happened.
Understand that VC hiring has no process — that's the whole problem
Investment banking recruiting has a calendar. VC recruiting does not. Most funds hire when they see someone interesting, not because they posted a role. The two most common paths into VC are: (1) you worked at a portfolio company and a partner knows your work, or (2) you cold-approached someone who hired you because of how you showed up in the conversation.
This means your strategy can't be "find the job postings." It has to be "get into the orbit of the people making hiring decisions" — which requires a completely different approach than IB recruiting.
Know which type of fund you're targeting — they hire differently
Seed/pre-seed funds (sub-$100M AUM): often 2-5 people, rarely hire formally, look for operators and founders who understand early company building. Series A/B funds ($100M-$500M AUM): the most common path is IB or consulting → associate. Growth funds ($500M+ AUM): similar to PE in that they look for financial modeling strength, due diligence experience, and deal sourcing ability.
You need to know which tier you're targeting and why, because the pitch for an a16z associate role is completely different from the pitch for a $20M fund.
Build a sourcing track record before you start applying
Every VC interview eventually lands on: "Tell me about a company you've been following. What's the thesis?" Most candidates give a mediocre answer here because they haven't actually been doing the work.
Start now: track 5-10 companies in a sector you care about. Follow the founders on LinkedIn and Twitter. Read their S-1s, earnings calls, and fundraising announcements. Write up a 1-page investment memo on one of them. This becomes the artifact you bring to every meeting — proof that you already think like an investor, not just that you want to.
Get into rooms through warm intros — but learn to cold approach too
Warm intros are the standard in VC. If you know someone who knows a partner, that's your first call. If you don't, cold outreach works — but only if you lead with intellectual content, not a job request.
The best cold email to a VC partner isn't "I'd love to learn about the fund." It's "I've been tracking the healthcare AI market for 6 months. Here's a company I think you might find interesting — curious if you've looked at it." That's a peer-level conversation, not a job ask. Partners respond to people who show them something interesting, not people asking for a favor.
The associate interview: what they're actually testing
Most VC associate interviews have three parts: (1) a sector conversation — do you know the market you claim to cover, and do you have an informed view? (2) a deal discussion — here's a real deal we looked at, tell us how you'd think about it; and (3) a sourcing presentation — here's a company you've been tracking, walk us through why.
The mistake most candidates make is over-preparing for financial modeling and under-preparing for the market perspective section. VC is not PE. They want to know if you can identify interesting companies before they're obvious, not whether you can build a three-statement model.
If you don't have IB experience, here's the actual path
The non-IB path into VC is real, but it requires deliberate positioning. The most common successful profiles: (1) operator who worked at a fast-growing startup and developed sector expertise; (2) journalist or analyst who covered a specific sector in depth; (3) academic researcher whose expertise is directly relevant to a fund's thesis (biotech, deep tech, climate).
In all three cases, the person brought something the fund couldn't hire for from the traditional IB pipeline — market knowledge, proprietary sourcing relationships, or technical depth. If you're going this route, the question you need to answer is: what do I know that an ex-GS analyst doesn't?
Want a VC-specific roadmap?
A session covers your specific background, which fund tiers to target, how to build your sourcing thesis, and how to cold approach partners who will actually respond.
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