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:
- AltsTech, 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 – 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
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
- Modeling for Venture Capital
- TheOpAcademy
- Coursera, e.g., Innovative Finance
- Luxembourg PE/VC Association VC MasterClass Program
You may want to join some of the VC organizations focused on diversity:
- Training for diverse VCs: BLCK VC Black Venture Institute, Newton Venture Program, VC Include, Vencapital, SEO Alternative Investments
- Diversity in VC: Culture Shifting Weekends, Diversity.vc, IIE.VC, VC Unleashed, Venture Equity Project, Cap Table Coalition, Diversity Data Alliance
- Diversity in Investing in General: Institutional Allocators for DEI, TIDE, Black Women in Asset Management, Diverse Asset Managers Initiative, National Association of Investment Companies, Diversity Project (UK), Institutional Investing Diversity Cooperative
- Women in VC: All Raise, Beyond the Billion, First Republic Women in Venture Database, Women in VC, Women-VC
- Women: 2XGlobal, Level20 (Europe), SoGal, Women in Funds, Women’s Private Equity Summit, Private Equity Women Investor Network, Women in Institutional Investments Network (SoCal base), Women Investors Network, Women in Asset Management (UK), WVC:E (Europe)
- African-American: BLCK VC, Black Women in Asset Management
- Latinx: Latinx VC, VCFamilia, New America Alliance
- Asian: Association of Asian American Investment Managers
- LBGT: LGBT+VC
- Students: RippleX Fellowship, Latina Venture Students, HBCUvc student fellowship, Girls into VC, Girls Who Invest, Women in Asset Management
- Media focused on women in VC: She-VC, Women’s PE Briefs
- Media focused on women in investing: Influential Women in Institutional Investing
- Impact in VC: Gratitude Railroad, The Global Impact Investing Network, Toniic, Impact VC, Mission Investors Exchange, Confluence Philanthropy, Social Venture Circle, Global Steering Group for Impact Investment, Impact Europe
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
- Recommended movies/fiction
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.
Major news sources:
- TechCrunch
- WSJ Pro – Venture Capital
- Private Equity Professional
- Beta Kit (Canadian)
- Institutional Investor
- Venture Beat
- Open LP
- Venture Capital Journal
- Private Equity International
- Private Equity News (Europe)
- Vator News
- Axios
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.
