Venture Job Recruiting, A Salesman’s Approach

VC is arguably one of the toughest jobs for MBAs to get.

Venture (“venture” and “VC” will be used interchangeably in my blog post) recruiting doesn’t have the luxury of structured process of campus recruiting. At most business schools, campus recruiting has been streamlined by the Career Management Office. Recruiters go to the campus, give information sessions, collect resumes, pick a bunch to interview, filter out some candidates and give the remaining pool a second-round, and finally make offers to the selected lucky few. But venture recruiting rarely works this way. In fact, I’ve never heard of somebody who found his VC job through campus recruiting.

VC is a people business. Since every venture firm is quite lean, the partners at each firm take their time to find the right fit. They want to get to know a person very well before bringing him/her on board. So networking is a critical first step for MBAs who’re interested in breaking into this industry. If there’s any tip that I can share, I suggest the candidate approach the venture job recruiting process like a salesman. Let me explain it here.

1) A salesman starts his sales process by casting a big net to identify prospects; a candidate needs to reach out to venture firms and make contacts as broadly as possible. Cold call is okay, but if a referral can be made by a mutual contact, at least one meeting is guaranteed.

2) Next, the salesman gets the first meeting with a potential client and tries to understand the client’s needs; the candidate should do the same and understand what a venture firm is looking for. It doesn’t matter how great your product is. If it doesn’t address the customer need, it’s useless. I met some peers who tried to get the venture job by labeling them as experts in the solar or wind space. It certainly helps by showing a strong interest and commitment. But since many venture firms have already built in-house knowledge in the solar/wind space, why do they want to add another solar/wind guy? Additionally, at such “first” meetings it is also critical to build a rapport with the prospect. People tend to do business only with those whom they like.

3) It’s important to have those “first” meetings, and it’s even more important to have the second meetings. Both salesman and VC job seeker must try to get the second (even third, fourth, etc.) meeting as they continue the process. As the customer need is better understood, it’s time to reformulate the value proposition and promote it to the audience in the follow-up meetings.

4) In neither process, the decision maker is likely to be an individual person. When you sell products/services to a company, pay attention to who are influential on the decision-making process. When you recruit for a venture job, you must make everybody at a firm feel happy with you, regardless of his/her role.

5) Iteration of Step 1 through 4: a salesman manages a pipeline of potential leads in both early and late stages, whereas a VC job seeker got to keep track of his leads in the same way. When you’re convinced that a customer (venture firm) has no way to buy your product/service (hire you), just say “thank you” and then move on.

6) Close the deal. No matter how many sales leads are in the pipeline, the success is ultimately measured by whether a deal can be closed. The analogy is just so obvious for the VC job seeker.

During the winter break of 2008/2009, I spent the first half working at my apartment in Philly and tried to connect with people at venture firms with practices in the Cleantech space. I cold called many people with an e-mail including my self-introduction (who I am, what I’m interested in, whether we can meet over coffee or lunch) as well as a resume tailored for the venture job. Other than cold call, I tried to get help from all my friends and former colleagues for a referral.

I don’t know whether it’s because my profile looked so good or it’s because people were less busy during the winter holidays – the latter was probably true. Over 80% of the people I contacted got back to me. I was thrilled. I worked with their executive assistants and set up as many meetings as possible. Then between Jan 3 and Jan 17, I had my first venture recruiting trip to the San Francisco Bay Area.

Before each meeting, I did a ton of homework to understand what companies a venture firm had invested in, what was new in the industry related to their investment or portfolio companies, the background of the person I was going to meet, and so on. In case someone wants to know the dress code, business casual should be fine.

During those meetings, instead of labeling myself as solar/wind/biofuel expert, I asked what was interesting to the venture firms. Many people told me it was energy storage (batteries for portable electronics, vehicle electrification, or grid applications). So I offered to do an independent study on the energy storage space. I framed it as a school project. Since it cost $0 for the venture firms, who would turn down my proposal? Moreover, the partners at Firm A agreed to work with me and discuss my progress periodically.

I took the “independent study” seriously. Besides digging out some market research to understand the overall market growth trend, I went through the grapevine and found people who’re regarded as THE experts on batteries at their companies (such as HP, Motorola, BYD, etc.). The primary research brought me a ton of first-hand insights. I also got a ton of help from my ex-girlfriend, who is a management consultant at a top consulting firm, to turn my findings into a PowerPoint deck.

Once I built this deck, it became even easier to have more meetings with venture firms. Who doesn’t like freebies? It was certainly mutually beneficial. As I made progress, it became quite natural to get the second and third meetings with venture firms in my recruiting pipeline.

During the spring semester in 2009, I flew once a month from Philadelphia to the San Francisco Bay Area. During each trip, I spent at least a week cruising back and forth on Sand Hill Road. It could be a costly effort – airfare, rental car, food and lodging, etc. I tried every possible way to keep my recruiting low-cost. Fortunately I had a friend at Google who graciously hosted me every time and took me to Google for free and tasty dinner. I was also introduced by a venture firm to a start-up for a couple hours of consultation. Rather than getting paid and taxed, I asked the start-up to cover my trip expense at the equal value. I also remember once while I was waiting for my 6am SWA flight at the PHL airport, a volunteer was called upon to give up the seat since the flight was overbooked. A couple hours of delay wouldn’t affect my meeting schedule on Sand Hill Road later that day, so I jumped out of my chair to take the offer – a $300 voucher which was very well used for a trip later on. Last but not least, my favorite cost-saving was spending my free time at the Menlo Park Public Library either working on my school project or preparing for the meeting with the next venture firm. The public library has free wireless, so why should I pay Starbucks to get online?

Between March and May, my networking effort led to interviews with four venture firms. I went through the process of meeting with every person on each of those investment teams. I was really impressed by all of them. I dreamed about becoming a member of any of those all-star teams. All that I needed was ONE job offer. And I really wished I could get it by the time of graduation.

To my disappointment, it didn’t work the way I had hoped for. It was a positive sign to see the great traction that I built with those venture firms on Sand Hill, but I just couldn’t close a deal. None of those four firms eventually hired anybody, because they all changed gear and had hiring freeze.

It wasn’t hard to understand this. Due to the economic meltdown in 2008/09, most venture firms couldn’t raise the next fund. Consequently, hiring another associate dropped to the bottom of every firm’s list, if not falling off completely. I told everyone whom I met that I appreciated his/her time and career advice and I also wanted to develop a long-term relationship no matter how my recruiting effort pans out.

And of course I needed to change my plan accordingly. When a customer can’t buy 100% of your stuff, can you sell a smaller piece that costs less but still meets some need? I called those venture firms which seemed to have liked me, “I understand what the economy looks like and I also understand you can’t commit to hiring a full-time associate. But if you have a small budget for a short-term gig, I’ll still be happy to take it.” Most people said they still couldn’t do it, but two partners at Firm A said they would think about it.

It was May. Summer already arrived in Philadelphia. It was time to wrap up business school. Along with 800 classmates, I graduated with my MBA. To be honest, the excitement was discounted, as I still couldn’t see light at the end of the tunnel. But I had already decided to move to the San Francisco Bay Area anyway.

The choice was a no-brainer to me. The Bay Area has the highest concentration of Cleantech venture firms as well as an awesome start-up ecosystem. It’s also closely connected with businesses in China. Although it’s less relevant to me in the short term, I’ve always wanted to make more use of my Chinese background in my career. If I must bet the farm on only one location, it is the Bay Area.

I sold all my furniture, donated 15 bags of clothes and stuff, and shipped 18 boxes of books and other belongings. On May 29, I left Philly and started a cross-country road trip. California was the destination.

The road trip was lots of fun - a total of 33 days covering 6700 miles. When I arrived at Billings, Montana, I got on the phone with a partner at Firm A. She said her firm would like to have me for a 3- to 4-month gig and asked me when I would be available.

“How about July 7?” I suggested.

She agreed.

Deal.

[To be continued]