career path for entreprenuers

Question

I guess this has been answered million times on this forum in some form or other. My question is what are the career paths available for people who want to pursue entreprenuership post MBA. I heard lot of people saying that it is difficult to get in VC if you dont have prior experience in this field. For people like myself who are little apprehensive in starting a venture just right out of MBA what are different career choices available. Someone also suggested that working in start-up is a good option but I wonder how many start-ups are willing to pay high salaries for the MBA graduates.

kryzak · Answer

Here is a link that may provide info:

103-t66941

do some searches, but in short, you have the following options:

- Get a VC internship and hope it turns into a full-time job. Difficulty: VERY TOUGH
- Start a company yourself. Difficulty: Tough
- Work at a startup. Difficulty: Easy to Medium

The last option can either be working at a startup that just got off the ground, thus the low pay and crazy hours. Or you can look for a somewhat established startup, pre-IPO, like Facebook, and get a good salary while still being able to shape the company.

After some experience, you can then write your business plan and go start your own company.

VCs will call you when you've made a name for yourself in the entrepreneurship world.

dagrobo · Answer

Thanks Kryzak.

Do we also have threads on this topic from previous years?

kryzak · Answer

i think there were, but you'll have to do some searches to find them... I couldn't find it with a quick search.

sudden · Answer

My finacee's uncle is a top guy at some VC firm in Silicon Valley, and from what I can tell from speaking with him, there are about a million ways to get into VC. That being said, I think a lot of people pursuing MBAs are pretty linear in their thinking -- "I'll do this for two years, then go to school, then when I get out, I will do some other thing for 3-4 years, etc." With VC, it is a lot less linear unless you have stellar connections or a lot of luck. The guy I know earned 3 college degrees and then worked at a Fortune 500 for a while in an engineering capacity. He made connections in the industry and eventually left to do a start up. From there, he went to VC. Not your standard path, but that's the point -- keep at it and roll with the punches. It might take you a while, or even a long time, but if you really want to get into VC, you will get there.

career path for entreprenuers

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