Note for VC Job Seekers

Hi,

I've got lots of emails asking for "advice" on VC recruiting. Every week, 5 to 10 of such requests pop up. My human nature wants me to be a nice guy and take these meetings/calls, but in reality it's just hard to manage. So I started to think about how I can help you in a meaningful way other than saying "You've got very impressive background. It'll be a matter of time before you find a job in the VC industry. Continue networking..."

Reflecting on my own VC recruiting experience, I found it was very effective to get a meeting when I offered to share my view on various sectors. Whether it was cold call or referral by a mutual contact, I e-mailed people a deck of slides that summarized my investment thesis. For example, one of these decks focused on battery and energy storage. It wasn't just a bunch of high level snapshot of the space with a couple bar charts that says the market would grow at x% CAGR. I actually took a deep dive, spoke to quite some vendors/buyers and Big Co's/start-ups, and got a whole bunch of first-hand insights that were actually unknown to the VCs that I spoke to. As people in the valley recognized my commitment and capability, they connected me with their colleagues and friends. Many of them are still close to me today.

My recruiting in 2009 was quite brutal. The post-2008 meltdown essentially caused many VC firms to freeze their hiring plan. Under such macro, my approach might not have been so "cost effective". If you can skip what I did above, it would be brilliant. But if you want to try something similar to what I did, here's what you can consider.

Choose one or two topics that makes most sense to you, and build a deck of investment thesis. Make sure it's high quality. People can recognize how much or how little effort you put in. A high quality thesis is a lot more compelling than a polished resume. In case you want my input on what should be included in investment thesis, here is typically what I want to tell people.

- Market size (SAM matters more than TAM), market trend, key drivers, what makes customer buy?

- Performance metrics, technology differentiation, go as deep as you can

- Competitive landscape

- What makes a start-up win?

- List of investment candidates

- Appendix (market report, customer interview scripts)

...

Feel free to send me the deck when it's ready. As we get to meet in person or talk on the phone, I will be glad to walk through your investment thesis and provide (constructive) feedbacks. I hope this value proposition makes sense. 

Best,

Mate, I C Bill