How Students Can Break Into Venture Capital

By Mike Dacosta and Sean Macary

As the Venture Capital industry continues to grow, it also is becoming more and more difficult for students and non-Venture Capitalists to break into the expanding industry. With the likes of large, mainstream venture capital firms such as Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger, Accel, etc. dominating the industry, breaking into Venture Capital for the average student may seem an increasingly daunting task. That being said, getting started in VC is by no means impossible. There is no clear cut, straight path to VC, but there are several things students can do to increase their chances of finding a career in VC. In this Substack, we will explore several common tips students can utilize for the ultimate goal of becoming a Venture Capitalist. 

Develop your own thesis 

A VC fund needs to establish a thesis in order to keep a focus on their sourcing and investments. Hillside Ventures seeks to invest in early-stage—pre-seed to Series A—companies, preferably featuring a UConn connection as part of their management team. The fund focuses on the insurtech, sustainability, and edtech industries. If there is a UConn alumnus amongst a startup's management team, Hillside can invest, regardless of industry. As a student, focusing on what interests you is critical in understanding what space you want to work and connect in. If you are just looking at "startups," you will be overwhelmed with varying information as the VC space is gigantic- AND growing. Over $612 billion in venture capital activity was invested globally in 2021—a 108% increase from the year before. So explore your options and develop your thesis on what type of investor you want to become. This will not just help you understand all the different ways people are innovating worldwide, but it will spark curiosity as you explore various industries - that's what being a student is all about. If you're stuck on where to start, here is a list of some popular incubators that have some really interesting and successful startups going through their programs: 

Y- Combinator 

TechStars 

500 Startups 

Venture Catalysts

Know The VC Lingo 

When talking to founders or investors, you may run into some words or phrases that you are familiar with but mean something completely different in the Venture Capital space - it is crucial to speak the same language as these professionals. Pitching does not have to do with baseball and Angel does not have to do with a supernatural spirit. Here is a list of commonly used terms and phrases that you will come across when navigating through VC and are important to understand. 

Angel Investor: A high-net-worth individual who provides financial backing for small startups or entrepreneurs, typically in exchange for ownership equity in the company. 

Bootstrapping: Situation in which an entrepreneur starts a company with little capital, relying on money other than outside investments. An individual is said to be bootstrapping when they attempt to found and build a company from personal finances or the operating revenues of the new company. 

Due Diligence: Requires an examination of financial records and potential market before entering into a proposed transaction with another party. 

Elevator Pitch: Elevator pitch is a slang term used to describe a brief speech that outlines an idea for a product, service, or project. The name comes from the notion that the speech should be delivered in the short time period of an elevator ride. 

Exit: Occurs when an investor decides to get rid of their stake in a company. If an investor "exits", then they will either have a profit or a loss (they are obviously hoping for a profit). 

GTM: Go-to-Market Strategy. A plan that details how an organization can engage with customers to convince them to buy their product or service and to gain a competitive advantage. 

Incubator: An organization engaged in the business of fostering early-stage companies through the different developmental phases until the companies have sufficient financial, human, and physical resources to function on their own. 

SaaS: Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is a software licensing model in which access to the software is provided on a subscription basis, with the software being located on external servers rather than on servers located in-house. 

Seed: The initial money needed to get a business off the ground, frequently provided by angel investors. 

Series A: Investment in a privately-held start-up company after it has shown progress in building its business model and demonstrates the potential to grow and generate revenue. It often refers to the first round of venture money a firm raises after seed and angel investors.

SWOT Analysis: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis is a framework used to evaluate a company's competitive position and to develop strategic planning. SWOT analysis assesses internal and external factors, as well as current and future potential. 

Unicorn: Unicorn is the term used in the venture capital industry to describe a startup company with a value of over $1 billion. 

Network, Network, Network 

Now that you have developed your thesis and can talk the talk with founders and investors, it's time to start building your network within the venture capital space. A great place to start is looking at alumni from your university who currently work in VC. Alumni are very willing to speak to students about their career paths, give advice from their experience, and bridge future connections with professionals they know. A very traditional way of finding these alumni is through LinkedIn. Almost all professionals have a LinkedIn profile that houses their past and present experiences. Using the platform's simple filtering search engine will help you find the people you want to hop on a phone call. 

Twitter has become a viral platform for sparking VC discussion and connections; I recommend creating an account. You will be able to see leading VCs thought leadership in real-time and start to build out your thesis/presence within the community. Go beyond just following people in this space - engage with them! Like, Retweet and Respond to tweets. The more you interact with the app, the more exposure you will get with your followers; it's a network effect. You will be able to engage directly with these professionals and gain access to webinars, live conferences, local events, and job opportunities within the venture capital community directly on your Twitter feed. 

Twitter has become a popular resource for Hillside analysts to source deals and find emerging founders as they tend to tweet out their latest accomplishments. Whether the connection is for a potential investment or creating a new relationship - it is always important to follow up on your connection; keeping the relationship growing is crucial as you do not know what opportunities could lie ahead. Here is a list of some popular VC twitter accounts: 

@CollegeVentureN 

@OfficialBBrooks - Brandon Brooks 

@asugsvsummit 

@jason - Jason Calacanis 

@Techstars 

@bfeld - Brad Feld 

@HarlemCapital

Make use of VC Student Opportunities 

Once you've developed the above skills and have taken the preliminary steps of building out your network, you should begin to explore any opportunities you have at your disposal for students interested in VC. As the VC industry grows, so does the number of options for students, whether that be through working at startups or student lead venture funds such as Hillside. Often such opportunities require effort on behalf of the student to search out. Ask around your school to see if a student-run fund exists or if there is any way for you to get involved in the startup ecosystem as a student. If there's not a fund at your school and you have a strong passion for this VC space, consider pitching the idea to faculty members use your entrepreneurial spirit to create the fund from the ground up! The best opportunities come to those who work hard to find them, so do not be discouraged if there are no surface-level offerings or programs. It takes time and persistence to break into the world of VC, and if you are willing to put forth the effort, a rewarding field awaits. 

College Ventures Network is building the first global network for student-led startup accelerators and venture capital funds, helping connect students worldwide who are interested in this space. CVN shows just how popular this space is becoming amongst undergraduate students and is living proof that it is possible to break into VC as a student. Their mission states, "Rather than campaigning current firms, we are solving the problem at its root. By giving ambitious students from diverse backgrounds experience and networks in venture, we can seed the industry with people who will understand and back the next generation of diverse founders. In the meantime, we will be creating more opportunities for and supporting incredible student founders." The point here is that there is already a giant network of students working within the VC space, and there's always room for more. 

There’s no straight path 

Many people believe that to work in Venture Capital; you need years of financial experience, advanced degrees from reputable universities, and capital. At some point, this all may have been true, but the reality is that now more than ever, it is becoming easier for students to break into VC out of college. This is no easy task, but you can set yourself up to be in a great position within the VC space with passion and commitment. One thing that is so important at Hillside and will continue to trend in the VC industry is diversity in experiences. We look for analysts from interdisciplinary backgrounds, not just within the

school of business, because we understand that there is so much information they can bring to the table through their diverse experiences. Explore all your interests; this will make you a more rounded student. Whether you enter VC upon graduation or not, stay in the loop! Keep engaging on Twitter and your curiosity about this space sparked; you never know how your current experiences could come around full circle in the VC space.