VC became this weird white-shoe consulting / ibanking path which is bizarre to me because the entrepreneurial journey is so unique and difficult. Definitely one of those “you have to live this to understand” situations to me.
I know there is now a generation of well-heeled Stanford and MIT alums who grew up with money and lean on their parents’ SV connections just like at banks and law firms with the Ivy League. If you aren’t those people I would think about a new career. I can spot a grizzled VC pretty quickly compared to the soft ones that were a PM at Stripe for a couple years or whatever they say their journey to VC was.
Sure there is. Bring in good deals and help close them.
There are some Associates who become partner track but very very few.
Probably good advice if working at a tech company. Perhaps not such great advice if you’re in VC and want to stay in VC. Things like firm loyalty, length of tenure, etc are all valued much more in VC than in tech companies.
If you try to pull the “switch jobs ever 2 years for a pay bump” trick in VC, you’ll never end up climbing the ranks and will remain on the bottom.