#Corporate venture capital salary series#

Venture Capital Associates who enter from fields like investment banking, management consulting, and product management normally stay for 2-3 years and then complete an MBA, join a portfolio company, start a company, or accept a strategy or finance role at a large company. However, the Partners and senior staff tend to spend more time on those tasks, as well as on the final investment decisions. This part consists of market/team/product analysis at early-stage firms, but it turns into more detailed financial analysis at later-stage firms.ĭepending on the firm size and structure, you may also support portfolio companies, observe Board meetings, help build the firm’s brand, and even contribute to fundraising. Deal Execution – Once the senior team members have decided to invest in a startup, you’ll analyze its market, request financial and product information, and push forward a possible deal.If you don’t like cold calling, cold emailing, or “networking,” you will hate this part of the job. Sourcing – This means finding new startups to invest in, making the initial outreach, speaking with the founders, qualifying companies, and recommending the best ones to the senior team members.Since Associates are near the bottom, they do much of the required grunt work in two main areas: In the VC hierarchy, Partners are at the top, followed by Principals or VPs, followed by Senior or Post-MBA Associates, followed by Pre-MBA Associates, with Analysts at the bottom. The short version is that VC professionals invest in early-stage, high-growth-potential companies in exchange for equity, and they aim to grow the companies and eventually sell them via acquisitions or initial public offerings (IPOs). If you don’t already know the basics of venture capital, check out the article on venture capital careers to get an introduction. That can be a positive if you just want to participate in the startup/finance ecosystem, but a negative if your goal is a long-term career in venture capital: The Venture Capital Associate Job Description One reason is the pay: VC Associates do not earn what PE Associates, or even IB Associates, do.īut another factor is that venture capital may be less of a “long-term commitment” than many other exit opportunities. If you can’t do that, eventually, you’ll be fired or washed out.While everyone is obsessed with exit opportunities into hedge funds and private equity, the Venture Capital Associate path often gets overlooked. You are judged on how many unicorns you produce a year in VC. So yes, the later stage the firm, the less it’s like being a founder.īut you do have to deliver. These fees start to “stack” on top of each other to some extent, and thus, your salary can double (along with your gains). You can also see from this why many VC firms now are raising new funds every 2 years (vs 3–4 years before). And if you are investing well, the carry should dwarf the cash over time. Note though, that at this size, the “buy-in” also can be large. There are enough fees here that the senior partners will make $1m+.

In a $760m+ fund, that’s $15m+ a year in fees.

#Corporate venture capital salary series#

Series B+ Fund: $1m+ a year for top partners.The general partners often make $300k-$500k a year, and it can be as much as $1m year if you are ‘stacking’ multiple funds on top of each other. In a $250m fund, that’s $5m a year in fees. In say, a $150m fund, that’s $3m a year in fees. Potentially much more once you are 3 funds in.

Series A Fund: $300k-$500k a year in salary.A $50m fund with 3 partners and 1 associate has $1m a year to split across salaries, expenses, partners, and associates. Smaller funds often do 2.5%, but still, there’s only so much to go around. 2% of a $20m fund is only $400k a year for all expenses. Pre-seed: $100k or less a year in salary.Those important points noted, then … on the cash / salary side, here are some rough yardsticks for a ‘full’ partner (likely 10 years in) before carry might make once 2–3 funds are under management: (I’m ignoring recycling here, it doesn’t matter for the answer). So roughly 20%-25% of the fund size is, over the life of the fund, set aside for costs and salaries. That’s what you’re dividing up among expenses (rent, travel, etc) and salaries. Third, generally, 2%-2.5% of the fund size each year for up to 10 years is set aside for costs and salaries.