This is part of a series on building your career in venture capital:
- Reading list for working in private equity/venture capital, including all of the major online communities, programs, and educational options for people studying VC
- How to win consulting, board, operating, and investment roles with private equity and venture capital funds (video)
- How to find a job as a VC scout
- How to get a job in venture capital
- VC recruiters list and compensation data
- How to negotiate a partner role at a VC or private equity firm
- For emerging VC and private equity investors: accelerators, platforms, communities, and incubators
- Syllabus for how to launch, manage, and invest a VC fund
Whenever we recruit someone new to join Versatile VC, at any level and in any capacity, I tell them:
Welcome!
I first recommend you join the most relevant online communities for you, since building a network is so fundamental to VC. I also suggest you also look for the other most relevant online communities for your particular industries and geographies of interest. (We keep a proprietary list of high-value online communities, but I can’t post it publicly here in order to keep a high signal-to-noise ratio.) I also recommend review the other resources below.
Consider joining the major VC associations and online communities:
- PEVCTech, focused on sharing information on technologies and systems that make investing in private companies more efficient and effective
- Founders Next Move, for tech founders in transition (many of which become VCs/angels)
- Confluence VC
- Let’s Talk Ops
- National Venture Capital Association (NVCA)
- VCPlatform – for portfolio acceleration professionals
- NextGen Partners – for pre-Partner VCs
- Emerging VCs, Nextgenpartners.
org , Emerging Venture Capitalists Association, Baby VC (Europe) – for pre-Partners, and secondarily people trying to crack into the industry - Revenue Based Financing Network Group
- NYC: New York Venture Capital Association, New York Private Equity Network, New York City Venture Connection, New York VC Network
- Europe: VEECEE
- Bay Area: VCNetwork
- 10 East – a platform where qualified individuals can invest in vetted venture/private equity, private credit, real estate, and other one-off investments typically unavailable through traditional channels. Led by Michael Leffell, former Deputy Executive Managing Member of Davidson Kempner.
Earn one of the programs/degrees targeted to help private equity/VC investors:
- Coolwater Capital
- Kauffman Fellows
- NVCA Venture Capital University
- Wharton Executive Education Venture Capital program
- IFF: The Mechanics of Venture Capital
- PrivCapAcademy
- TytchMe
- Modeling for Venture Capital
- NewtoVC
- Coursera, e.g., Innovative Finance
You may want to join some of the VC organizations focused on diversity:
- Training for diverse VCs: BLCK VC Black Venture Institute, Left Tackle Capital, Newton Venture Program, VC Include, Vencapital, SEO Alternative Investments
- Diversity in VC: Culture Shifting Weekends, Diversity.vc, DiverseVC, IIE.VC, National Association of Investment Companies, Project Include, VC Unleashed, Venture Equity Project
- Diversity in Investing: Institutional Allocators for DEI, TIDE, Black Women in Asset Management
- Women: All Raise, BeyondtheBillion, First Republic Women in Venture Database, Level20, SoGal, Women in VC,
- Women in Investing: Women’s Private Equity Summit, Private Equity Women Investor Network, 2XGlobal
- African-American: BLCK VC, Black Women in Asset Management
- Latinx: Latinx VC, VCFamilia, New America Alliance
- Asian: Association of Asian American Investment Managers
- Students: RippleX Fellowship, Latina Venture Students, HBCUvc student fellowship
- Media focused on women in VC: She-VC, Women’s PE Briefs
- Impact in VC: Gratitude Railroad
Read other introductory investor resources:
- How I Got Up To Speed In VC
- Equal’s required reading list for new hires
- I’m leaving VC; this is what I didn’t expect to learn
- 10 Insights That Helped Me Level Up as a Seed Stage VC — Part 1 and Part 2
- How students can help VC firms
- Venture Deals
- NVCA Model Documents
- Confluence resource collection
- VC 101 for Founders
- #BeYourOwnMentor – Independent Study in Early Stage VC
- Resources for those interested in venture capital and private equity
- The Harlem Capital Syllabus: A Primer on Venture Capital
Podcasts:
Consider getting formal training in serving on boards:
- National Association of Corporate Directors Fellowship
- ACCD (American College of Corporate Directors)
- NACD (National Association of Corporate Directors)
- Catalyst – focus on women
- Executive Leadership Council – focus on African-Americans
- Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility
Consider other relevant professional training:
- AltMBA
- Corporate Finance Institute
- Investment Banking Institute
- You can also always earn a JD, MBA, CPA, and/or CFA.
Other general early-career resources we recommend:
- To University and Beyond: Launch Your Career in High Gear
- How I’m Onboarding My Summer Apprentice
- How to Start Your New Job
- Dorking (how to find anything on the Internet)
- Tools for research: Hiswai
- 10 tips for smarter, more efficient internet searching
- My article on Top 10 Easy Career Hacks That Most People Don’t Do
- How to Get Free Access to Scholarly Journals
- How to Help Your Interns Learn from Experience
- Start Your New Job Right: Stepping Up
- Seventeen Keys to the Corporate Lock
- Join the Global Elite
I have a posted a lot of my favorite books on Goodreads, but there are a few books I particularly recommend for people who want to work efficiently:
- “Bit Literacy” (free on iphone/ipad)
- “Getting Real” (free online) and “Rework”, both from 37 Signals
- “Getting Things Done”, David Allen
- “On Writing Well”, William Zinsser
- everything written by Edward Tufte
Lastly, I suggest use Feedly to follow the newsletters/media which cover our sector. I have posted my old personal blogroll.
Further reading:
Disclosure: 10 East is a sponsor of my blogs.
