Two years ago, I was in your shoes. On my third VC internship. I had been dying to break into the industry for years, and I had chosen the route of an “internship spray and pray”: interning with different funds until I would receive a full-time offer. Or so I hoped.
It was by the third one that my mates started mocking me: “You’ll be an intern until you retire” they said. And honestly, at the time, that wasn’t too far from the truth—I had been trying for a good while. Luckily though, nearing the end of the internship, I received an offer to join Heartfelt full-time. And I was ecstatic—I finally had my offer!
But was it purely luck? No. I had also learned a thing or two about being a great intern. After a couple of tries, I had figured out how investment teams tick, what they care about, what to do, what to avoid, and how to actually add value.
I had found a way to maximise my chances of receiving a full-time offer. And I want to share it with you.
Let me walk you through it.
1. Make your intentions known from the start
Tell your manager that you’d like to join full-time. Don’t be weird about it. Just say that you’re looking for a job and that you’d like to be considered in case there’s a match.
This may change his or her perception of your work and encourage him or her to test your performance with diverse tasks.
2. Ask for clear objectives
“What should I achieve to receive a full-time offer?”
A simple question with hopefully a simple answer. Each fund has different goals, so you need to find out what those are for yours. A nice side-effect is that it gives you a framework to discuss your hiring. You can spoon-feed your achievements back to him or her: “Look, as we discussed, objectives achieved”. (Now where’s my offer?)
Ask your other teammates as well—they will have different views and insights on how you can stand out.
3. Quantify everything you do
Your team will want to understand your ability to do the job before hiring you, so take time to log your actions and concretise your achievements.
For me, the most important statistics were:
- Number of companies sourced & how far they got in the funnel (e.g. [X] sourced, [X] got to first call, [X] to second call, [X] into DD, and [X] were invested in)
- Number of introduction calls taken with founders & how many of these I led
- Number of late-stage calls taken with founders & how many of these I led
- List of investors I met for coffee
- List of events I attended
- Anything exceptional, like the results of side-projects
4. Take initiative
You asked for their expectations of you, now you can overachieve. Look for opportunities that add value.
In VC, that means they either increase dealflow, or they increase expertise on investment topics. Here’s why:
- If you create proprietary dealflow, your team gains access to investment opportunities they would not have access to without you. This increases their ability to invest in great companies and return money to their investors.
- If you create proprietary knowledge, your team can evaluate companies they could not evaluate without you. Again, this enables them to make great investments they may not have made without you.
Arguably, the first is more important.
Some examples:
- I met a French girl who interned at a VC where no one covered the French market. She was the first on her team to do so, as French was her native language.
- I met a Dutch guy who interned at a Consumer fund where nobody covered Web3. He was crypto-native and got the ball rolling there.
For me, it was content. During my first weeks at Heartfelt, I realised that we didn’t have a strong content strategy yet. And we were missing out—content attracts great founders.
I wanted to see if I could get our target founders to reach out to us. So after pondering some ideas, I decided to launch a series of fundraising tips for founders at the pre-seed stage. I wasn’t an expert yet, but I had a front-row seat to the process and a team that could back me up.
I challenged myself to publish one post per day for the full month of August. In July, I wrote the 31 posts, had them checked by my colleagues, corrected the mistakes, and manifested my publishing campaign.
A month later my dealflow generator had kicked into gear and founders from far and wide had reached out. I was now the proud collector of hundreds of rocket ship and rolling hearts emojis, fulsome and frank connection requests, angry and appreciative founders, snooty and supportive investors, Irish and Indonesian decks, and easy and effortful lessons. It had worked pretty well.
5. Don’t wait to take responsibility
Develop the skills of a full-time employee as soon as possible. In investment teams, that means owning a larger share of the investment process. Make it your goal to run a process from sourcing to closing: find great founders, engage with them, lead the calls, run the DD, pitch to IC, and close the deal. This may seem like a lot, but it’s the job.
Win your colleagues’ trust by handling the primary responsibilities well, and move up fast from there.
6. Ask questions, all the time
It’s the fastest way to learn. Don’t be afraid to look stupid or vulnerable—internships are for learning. And honestly, the rest of your career is also for learning in my opinion. So I suggest maintaining a “learner’s attitude”.
7. Ask for feedback, all the time
You grow from feedback, so create an environment where others feel comfortable sharing it with you. I did this in two ways (and still do):
- Ask for feedback right after doing new things, like leading a founder call.
- Plan feedback sessions two months into the internship with everyone you work with—this gives you enough time to incorporate their feedback before your hiring conversation.
8. Bring positive energy
VC teams are small, so every member contributes substantially to the overall culture. That’s why you have to fit in and positive energy gets you a long way.
Everyone enjoys nice conversations and genuine person-to-person interest. So attend social events, show up to the office, invite others for lunch, organise after-work drinks, and invest time in your colleagues. Hopefully, they’re cool people.
9. Network, hard
Plan (online) coffees with all other relevant VCs and attend all relevant networking events. Your best place to start is LinkedIn: reach out to analysts, associates, and other interns. During your coffees, ask them for (i) deals and (ii) open positions in their team. You need alternatives.
The most relevant networking events for you are “junior VC” events where you meet up to associate-level investors. If there are no such events in your city, organise one!
10. Start doing the job before the internship
The easiest time to start is before the internship. You‘ve got everything you need: a laptop and your fund’s investment focus. So start contacting founders and fellow investors, and attend some events. Fill a bag of dealflow and take it to your first day at the office to set the tone for the rest of the internship.
11. And finally, just ask
Sit down with your hiring manager and ask if there is a role for you. Try to give them a deadline 1-2 months before the end of the internship. In case they want you, this gives them some pressure to decide and it gives you time to find something else if things don’t work out.
Best of luck!
Feel free to contact me on LinkedIn for questions.