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. Good places to start are Confluence and GenZMafia. I’ve listed below other communities focused on VC, and 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 suggest you also consider the steps below. I list here programs/degrees for people studying VC; all of the major VC organizations including those focused on diversity; and other professional training for investors.
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
- Confluence VC
- Let’s Talk Ops, Venture Capital Operations Association – fund operations professionals
- National Venture Capital Association
- NYC: New York Venture Capital Association, New York Private Equity Network, New York City Venture Connection, New York VC Network
- VEECEE – European VCs
- VCPlatform – for portfolio acceleration professionals
- NextGen Partners – for pre-Partner VCs
- VCNetwork
– for GPs in the Bay Area - 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
- Gen Z Mafia
- VCs who care
In particular, you may want to join some of the VC organizations focused on diversity:
- Diversity in general: Hawke Scout Program, Investors of Color Network, Left Tackle Capital, National Association of Investment Companies, NewtoVC, Newton Venture Program, VC Include, Techfundingequity, Vencapital, Diversity.vc (UK focus)
- Women: All Raise, BeyondtheBillion, First Republic Women in Venture Database, Level20, SoGal, WeAreTechWomen, Women in VC, Women’s Private Equity Summit, Private Equity Women Investor Network
- Media focused on women in VC: She-VC, Women’s PE Briefs, WoVen: Women Who Venture
- BIPOC: VC Unleashed
- African-American: Black Venture Institute, BLK VC, Culture Shifting Weekends, HBCUvc
- Latinx: Latinx VC, VCFamilia, Latina Venture Students
- Students: Dipper Partners, RippleX Fellowship
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
- VentureGlossary
- The Harlem Capital Syllabus: A Primer on Venture Capital
Consider getting formal training in serving on boards:
- National Association of Corporate Directors Fellowship
- Directors College For Venture Backed Company Directors
- ACCD (American College of Corporate Directors)
- NACD (National Association of Corporate Directors)
- Women Corporate Directors
- Catalyst – focus on women
- Executive Leadership Council – focus on African-Americans
- Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility
Earn one of the programs/degrees targeted to help private equity/VC investors:
- Kauffman Fellows
- NVCA Venture Capital University
- Wharton Executive Education Venture Capital program
- IFF: The Mechanics of Venture Capital
- PrivCapAcademy
- TytchMe
- Modeling for Venture Capital
- Coursera, e.g., Innovative Finance
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:
