Venture Capital VC

A junior week in venture is mostly sourcing. You meet founders, many of them on short calls, scan new companies in the spaces your fund cares about, and decide which ones deserve a partner's time. Pipeline meetings, usually weekly, are where you argue for the ones you found.

When the fund is serious about a company you write the memo: the market, the team, the product, competition, and why now. You call customers and experts, look at the numbers the company shares, and build a light model. After an investment you help portfolio companies with hiring, introductions, and research.

The rest is network. Events, dinners, and staying in touch with people who might start something next year. It does not feel like work, but it is most of the job.

What juniors hand in

• Sourcing lists and market maps for a sector or theme.
• Short notes on companies met, with a recommendation to pass or go deeper.
• Investment memos for the partnership.
• Customer and expert call notes during diligence.
• Light models: market size, unit economics, and what the fund needs to believe for a return.
• Portfolio support: candidate lists, customer introductions, and research for founders.

Seed and pre-seed

The earliest checks, often before revenue. Small teams, decisions based mainly on founders and market. Juniors source and meet many companies.

Early stage (Series A and B)

Companies with a product and early traction. More diligence on metrics and customers, and a board seat for the lead investor.

Growth

Later-stage companies with real revenue. Closer to PE: more modeling, more financial diligence, and often hires from banking and consulting.

Corporate VC

A company's own venture arm, investing for strategy as well as returns. More structured, with the parent's priorities attached.

Sector funds

Focused on one area: biotech, fintech, climate, enterprise software. Domain knowledge matters more here than anywhere else in venture.

Student funds and scout programs

Funds run by or for students, and scout roles where a fund gives you a small budget or referral role. The most common way students get real venture experience.

The fund's limited partners: endowments, pensions, foundations, and family offices who expect returns over ten years or more. Day to day you serve the partners who make decisions.

Founders are the other client. A fund's reputation with founders is how it gets into good deals, so being useful to them is part of the job.

Typically 45 to 60 hours a week, with evenings often spent at events and dinners. The schedule is flexible and self-directed, which suits some people and unsettles others.

The rhythm follows the pipeline meeting and the fundraising cycle. A competitive deal can compress diligence into days.

Unstructured. Few funds run analyst programs, and most hire one person at a time when they need one. Openings appear throughout the year and often fill through referrals before anyone posts them.

Most VCs come from somewhere else: banking, consulting, product, engineering, or founding a company. For students, the realistic entry is a fellowship, a student fund, a scout role, or an internship found through a network.

Freshman and sophomore year

Join or start a student fund, work at a startup, or build something. Write publicly about a market you care about.

Any term

Apply to fellowships, scout programs, and internships as they appear. Many are posted by funds directly or shared through student networks.

Ongoing

Meet founders and investors, and keep a list of companies you would back with a reason for each. This becomes your interview.

Interviews

Conversations about markets you know, companies you would invest in, and how you would find deals. Some funds ask for a written memo.

After graduating

Many people go into banking, consulting, product, or a startup first, then move into venture with a network and an angle.

You like early technology and the people who build it, and you can live with slow feedback and real ambiguity. You enjoy meeting people and you are good at staying in touch.

You want to be around companies at the start rather than the end. You form opinions quickly and can write them down clearly.

Not for you if you want a structured path, clear promotion steps, or fast feedback on whether you are good. If you like the analysis more than the people, growth equity or PE will suit you better.

• Judging founders, markets, and products with incomplete information.
• Sourcing: finding companies before others do.
• Memo writing that makes a clear case.
• Building and keeping a network.
• Unit economics and the basics of startup finance.

Next to PE

PE buys mature companies with debt and models them in detail. VC takes minority equity in young companies and judges founders and markets more than numbers.

Next to Corp Dev

Corporate venture invests for a parent company's strategy. Independent VC answers only to its limited partners and its returns.

Next to Consulting

Consulting gives you many industries and a structured career. VC gives you many companies and very little structure.

Startups are the most common next step: joining a portfolio company in operations or strategy, or founding one. Product and business roles at tech companies also hire from venture.

Some move to other funds or to growth equity. The partnership track is long and uncertain, and many junior roles are designed for two years.

VC is a structured path like banking.

There is no common analyst class, timeline, or interview format. Each fund hires its own way, often without posting.

You pick winners on day one.

Juniors source, research, and support. Decisions sit with partners, and feedback on any call takes years.

You need to start in VC to end up in VC.

Most VCs came from somewhere else. A startup, an operating role, or a sector specialty is often the better route in.