Summer internship in a VC firm

Question

My greetings to gmatclub members,

My post-MBA goals are tech entrepreneurship and Venture Capital, and I'm thinking about a summer internship in a VC firm as a way to better understand the VC business.
The issue is that I'm not from Investment Banking. My background is 10 years of software engineering and management in for a tech company (outside of U.S.),
which I joined as a startup, and which now has a capitalization of more than $10 billion.
Personally, I have grown from a software engineer to a head of department with more than 50 engineers.

I'm wondering, how hard is to get such summer internship in a well-known VC company?
Is my background sound enough to get a summer internship at a VC and to consider VC as my post MBA goal?

stevenfuqua · Answer

It's really hard to get a position with a VC firm, as there isn't a formal recruiting pathway and it is heavily network dependent. With that said, VCs prefer people with industry operational experience, which it appears you have plenty of. The tech industry is also one that VCs invest the most heavily in. My opinion is that your profile is quite competitive.

I'd look into the specific MBA programs and see how strong/big their VC clubs are, maybe contact a student on the club leadership and ask about their VC recruitment experiences in general. You can also check the employment reports of leading MBA programs (they're all pretty low for VC, but some schools may stand out). Duke has a formal internship program (mentored study) program that can help students with networking and gain experience in the VC industry during school.

Regardless, plan to do a lot of off-campus recruiting during the MBA.

chromium73 · Answer

Investment banking is largely useless at venture capital firms, unless its a growth equity fund. Early-stage stuff its all about operational experience. The industry is small and contracting, so you really just have to rifle shot as many as possible and network like hell. Best of luck

jlevi · Answer

Really, really hard. I managed to get one at a super-angel office in Israel, but was unable to get an internship at a larger VC office. Keep in mind I had both an acceptance letter from INSEAD and a previous exit of my startup in Silicon Valley, and that's pretty much the only thing that got me meetings at firms like Benchmark.

I think you might have to set your sights a little lower, as the VC industry is notoriously selective, and they really only want to bring in people who've done it themselves (as entrepreneurs).

I think you might have to set your sights a little lower, as the VC industry is notoriously selective, and they really only want to bring in people who've done it themselves (as entrepreneurs).

Summer internship in a VC firm

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