Paige Finn DohertyFounding Partner, Behind Genius · Founding Partner at Behind Genius Ventures

how to break into VC part three #hiring #venturecapital #analysts

9 Dec 2024 · 1 min

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1:01

In this segment of the "how to break into VC" series, the speaker outlines the two essential capabilities for aspiring venture capital analysts or associates: sourcing and researching. After briefly revisiting how a deep‑dive analysis of a target company can showcase research talent, the focus shifts to sourcing. The speaker argues that the most compelling proof of sourcing ability is getting a busy venture capitalist to reply to a cold email. They reference a 2020 article they authored that broke down five components of successful cold outreach—purpose, perspective, process, preparation, and follow‑through—and note that applying this framework helped someone land a VC job. The advice is presented as a practical, actionable step for candidates to demonstrate they can elicit responses from founders and investors alike.

Chapters

As I said before, there are 2 key elements for an analyst or an associate. Oh, that's my cat. One is sourcing and 2 is researching. So I already explained an example of how you could show that you are able to research a company, which is to do a deep dive on a company that you're super interested in. Second part is how do you demonstrate sourcing? I think there's actually some really unique ways of doing this, but I think the number one way that you can demonstrate great sourcing is actually to get a venture capitalist to reply to your email. By writing a really great cold email, I have some thoughts on this. I wrote this piece in 2020. It literally got someone a job. Five components of successful cold outreach: purpose, perspective, process, prep, follow through. Go read this piece on my website if you're curious to learn more. But I think you can demonstrate that you would be really good at getting founders to respond to your cold email if you can get a venture capitalist who gets a lot of emails to respond. Hope this is helpful. Let me.