Some firms might accept it, but I don’t think it would work everywhere. The other issue is that VCs tend to focus more on biotech than healthcare systems/services, so not sure how well it would transfer over.

Hi Brian,
Thus was very informative. I’m interested in pursuing a VC career long term in California. I have a Masters in Healthcare Administration (MHA) not an MBA and years of business development, strategy and operational experience in large healthcare systems. Would this be considered equivalent to the post-MBA level by VCs or would I strictly need an MBA?

Yes, you could do that, but you’re probably not going to make a startup successful in only 2-3 years, so…

If you join after founding and exiting a startup successfully, it would be a Partner-track role.

Thanks Brian. Is working as a VC Associate for 2/3 years, then founding/working in a startup for 2/3 years, then returning to VC a viable move? Would this be a partner track position, or is the MBA still necessary (considering London’s less developed MBA recruiting)?

1) London is not the ideal place for VC careers, but you could still do it. Hard to give a recommendation without more information.

2) Yes, some people start companies, but it is definitely not the most common career path. It just stops making logical sense once you get to a certain salary/bonus level.

3) If you work in VC after working at a startup, you can get into roles like corporate strategy or maybe even corporate development that would have been difficult or impossible from a role like sales or product management at a startup. But these are mostly on the corporate side. IB/PE is still very difficult, but many of the jobs that start with “corporate” are quite good for the hours and stress.

4) I don’t think you could move directly from VC into IB without previous IB experience or an MBA. So, yes, you would probably need an MBA to do it. There’s an outside shot you might be able to find a smaller, startup-focused boutique bank or something like that and work there, but you’re unlikely to go from a VC to an EB/BB bank.

1) So, as I’m based in London, would you not recommend going down the VC career path then?
2) Ok, it’s just that you mentioned above that some VCs start their company after 2/3 years in the Associate role, which, I’m guessing, you’re saying is not the best move because of the reasons you just mentioned?
3) Also, out of interest, you mentioned at the end that, coming from startup roles, Associate positions can open up new career options. What sort of options would these be? I’m assuming not IB/PE, since you mentioned that it’s difficult to move into these roles from VC?
4) How difficult would it be to move back into IB roles after VC? Would I need an MBA? You mentioned it’s diffcult, unless you’ve already worked in IB.

1) MBAs are less important in London because MBA-level recruiting is less developed, but there are also many fewer VC firms and positions available. Most VC activity takes place in Asia and North America, and Europe is usually not the ideal place to start.

2) I don’t really think “pre-VC job to VC to entrepreneurship” is a great idea because it will be tough to give up a relatively high-paying, cushy job to start something new with no paycheck at first. So, I would think of it as “IB vs. VC vs. start a company” instead.

My advice is that if you want to start a company, do so as early as possible because the longer you wait, the harder it will be once you have more responsibilities and access to higher-paying jobs. If it doesn’t work out, you can always do an MBA or otherwise get a normal job.

I know of very, very few people who worked in jobs like IB and VC for a long time and then started their own business (of any type, not necessarily a VC-backed startup).

Thanks. If you want to do an MBA, maybe gain tech/healthcare finance experience or work at a startup in a finance, strategy, sales, or product role so that you have a better story for the post-MBA VC role.

You can go to business school right after being an Analyst in IB, but it would be a bit pointless to do it after working as an Associate because you normally do an MBA *to join as* as an Associate.

It would help your story and networking efforts more if you did something tech or startup-related before an MBA, though.