I don’t know; a history Ph.D. to VC is not particularly common. I think you will get a ton of questions about why you went from startups/entrepreneurship to a qualitative Ph.D. program, which will be hard to answer in most cases. If you have an amazing answer or story to support this move, sure, you could probably win an early-stage VC role somewhere, but you’ll need at least some additional self-study or deal/finance-based role along the way.

Sometimes you can skip this for something like a biotech/chemical engineering Ph.D. to life science VC roles since scientific knowledge is more important, but I don’t think this works quite as well for tech/consumer VC roles.

I am finishing a history PhD from a top-3 global university, with a strong businesss/entrepreneurial background (founded a language processing company, worked for a Fortune 100 out of undergrad, and as an aide to a CEO). My research and soft skills are very good; what I want to gain is finance and deal experience to in a few years’ time either start a fund, or have built up a network from which to launch another entrepreneurial venture. Early- stage VC senior associate would be what I would want to target; how tough of a target is that? Plan B is management consulting.

Many thanks for any feedback.

I think you can just apply directly to life science VC roles. IB or PE would be tough without real finance experience, but VC is doable if your science background is strong enough. Please see:

https://mergersandinquisitions.com/life-science-venture-capital-jobs/

Thanks. If you already have 7 years of experience, you’ll almost certainly need to use an MBA to get into VC at this point. I don’t think they would hire you as an Analyst or Associate if you’ve already worked at startups for that long. Before doing the MBA, it would help to get some type of pre-MBA internship in VC, finance, or even something like product management or business development at a startup as well.

As mentioned in the article, biotech VCs are a bit different and will sometimes hire people with mostly technical backgrounds who can evaluate new technologies properly (as someone without a medical or advanced science degree isn’t well-equipped to do this). So an MBA is less necessary if you are targeting biotech VCs.

I can’t really tell you anything more than what was in this article and the other VC-related and networking coverage on this site. It’s just a matter of finding people on LinkedIn or asking around your professional networking, reaching out to VCs who invest in this area, following up, etc.

Certifications do not help. Read the VC recruiting article. Learn about tech and work at a startup and advance to more senior roles.