Yet Another (ex-)VC Blog

Recently I have been approached by people looking for an internship or job with our firm.  We’re not hiring or looking for interns right now but a few things jumped out at me about the methods that were used to reach me.

Most people who contacted me sent a blind email having found my email address on our firm website.  Also, almost everyone sent a generic cover letter that was not customized.

Now, I did read and reply to each of these inquiries, but my guess is that many VCs (and I’m speaking from experience when I was looking for a job in VC over the last year) would not answer this ‘cold call’ email.

So if I were looking for a VC job, what could I do to improve my chances of getting a meeting with the VC about potential internships or jobs?  Some thoughts…

• Use LinkedIn to find someone in your network who may know the VC you’d like to reach.
• If you have no other way to reach the VC except through a blind email, take time to customize your cover letter pitch to the firm (or the person at the firm) you’re targeting.
• Talk to me about some interesting companies in spaces our firm might be interested in and offer to connect me with them.
• Don’t ask for a job or an internship – ask for advice.  If you ask me if I am hiring and I’m not, I will probably say “we’re not hiring” versus if you ask me “can you talk to me about careers in VC, I want to learn” I’m more apt to engage in a dialog (and I don’t think I’m unique in that respect amongst VCs).

If you’ve had some success reaching VCs to discuss jobs or internships, what has worked for you?

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