AMA - I work at a VC fund
willl try my best to be honest, ask me anything
Talking product sense with Ridhi
9 min AI interview5 questions
How do someone get in?
Various ways to get in but below is the most common way funds hire (think 80% hiring follows this template)
Analyst - go to a branded school +2-3 years of MBB
Associate/AVP - strong operating role for 5-6 years in India followed by M7 MBA in US/pre MBA analyst experience
VP/Principal - strong operating/consulting background + prolific Angel investor
Partner - rarely hired, usually grows internally from Principal level or start your own fund after a successful founder exit
Interested in Associate roles but generally the career pages are empty. Do we need to approach someone ? What would be a good way to start searching?
How’s the environment right now? Better than 6 months back? Or does the slump continue?
Environment is better than the last 6 months but far far away from the peak markets.. growth deals have started to pickup in Q3.. companies are constantly pegged to public market multiples even at series B/C.. however all the funds have a lot of dry powder so there are a few crazy (10M seed chqs) for highly pedigreed folks
Thanks for getting back Why growth deals? Seed startups now struggling and hence okay with low valuations?
What are the salaries 5-10 years down the line-Indian context . How does it compare to careers in consulting and PMs at big tech money wise. Can you quote some figures/range for the time line?
When will this winter end
This is normal world. Life was this pre 2019. Covid years were an anomaly which will never come back. So never?
are seed rounds expected to pick up soon in India?
Don’t expect to get $2-3M just with an idea in this market. Even at seed stage funds want to chat with few initial customers. Either bootstrap to few 100 customers, build a broken MVP or raise a $500k chq from micro VCs. YC is a great option for first time founders too!
How is the pay?
Very good. But no free lunch. You work 2x-3x as hard and are expected to be available round the clock. Not for the ones who value WLB.
Which job isn’t exactly hard in the startup ecosystem or in any other professional setup? Sales dept take hard targets & get money in the company while being least appreciated across sectors. Founders juggle multiple things & make payrolls month after month, no one can understand the mindset/stress unless you employ & pay even 2 employees regularly.
Besides VC, which other job gives the highest paycheck + social capital + wide upward mobility options + long feedback loops that don’t hamper your promotion for the next 5 years?
Why are VCs not scared about how forced the AI bubble feels? Are there not learnings from Web 3?
Not saying that AI is amazing and a big opportunity, but 30 funds from India investing in 3-4 startups each - is it unclear which teams/spaces will be big?
It’s the power law.. VC is not a comission game, but an omission game. You lose $2M for being wrong in a deal but make couple hundred from one company that scales well.
