How did you get into venture capital?

This podcast with Upside covers my path into venture capital as well as my progression from associate to partner : ascending the venture career ladder and opening an office in Austin by upside | Podchaser. Feel free to listen at 2x speed.

What are you looking at these days?

I have a hypothesis about infrastructure for growing and fragmenting markets: Day by Jay #8: The F-word – Day by Jay

I am also interested in vertical payments, talent and labor networks, and other network or marketplace models..

What does a VC interview look like?

Here’s how I run a recruiting process for interns, analysts, and associates: https://twitter.com/jaydimonte/status/1321920175470452737

What’s your advice for getting into venture capital?

Start doing the job before you have the job:

1. Source – find interesting companies. Bonus points if you find them first!
2. Network – as much as you can, interact with VCs. In order to stand out from other candidates, come with interesting companies (above!), well though perspectives/ questions, help for portfolio companies, or a thesis you can share. Do the things you’re best at, not necessarily all of these!
3. Create a perspective – show that you can synthesize data, your experience, etc. and create insights and opinions. Bonus points if this is unique from what is already out there. Ex-operators or industry/technology experts will do well here.
4. Stay in the flow – read up on everything you can VC and startup. Know the news. Understand what the state of the market is (hint: its hot right now) and start to create hypothesis on what it all means.
5. Build a track record – some allude to angel investing here but I think it includes any time you can publicly state your support for a company. This might be on twitter or a blog. I had an intern that created deal memos for companies she would have invested in if she was a VC already… within a year or two she had a good idea of where she went right or wrong, at least initially!

There are plenty of other ways into venture capital. This advice is targeted to MBAs or other students that are recruiting but can apply to folks looking to transition in from another career as well.

Other questions? Find me on twitter @jaydimonte