Earlybird Venture Capital’s Post

Great interview on how to Kickstart career in VC fund universe!

Usually, the weakest part of a pitch deck is the competition slide. Most founders pitching struggle to communicate how their startup differs from the competition. As someone who’s internship is focused on understanding the competition and developing strategic recommendations - I get it. Explaining your startup’s differentiation against competitors to investors is *hard*. There’s generally not a lot of information out there, and if there is, it’s in bits and pieces. I’ve been spending a lot of time doing this work myself. There are three areas, or buckets, that I organize information I collect to triangulate my understanding of the competition. I’ll share more on this tomorrow.

Venture Capital 101: 6-Month Plan To Become A VC ~ Insights from Kadi-Ingrid Lilles, Head of Platform at Iron Wolf Capital In our third learning session with Kadi, she explains how important it is to focus on the quality over quantity for applications. Curious why Kadi recommends making a deck of companies to invest to show the interviewer? Watch this quick clip, and share your thoughts or questions in the comments below! #venturecapital #internship #partner #fellowship #applying

Discover the incredible journey of Darcy Wilborn, Vice President of Operations at i2E, in our latest article. From internships Discover the incredible journey of Darcy Wilborn, Vice President of Operations at i2E, and learn about business accelerators right in your backyard. Read the full article now https://lnkd.in/e6cg6jVY #Entrepreneurship #i2E #

🎥 How To Add Value to VCs When Applying For A Job ~ Vanda Alwast (née Gaidamovič), ESG Manager at Iron Wolf Capital The VC world often seems glamorous, filled with conferences and fancy events. Vanda reveals the behind-the-scenes work in VC and shares tips for interns and junior employees on adding value. Watch the video to learn more and share your thoughts below! #venturecapital #internship #partner #platform #fellowship

Sharing what all I did and learned in the first month of my first VC internship: 1) Researching new and upcoming markets. 2) Reading tons of relevant material online related to the markets I’m researching. 3) Identifying startups and opportunities in these markets. 4) Deriving the market size of the sector. 5) Reaching out to people working in the same segment and learning from them. 6) Once again, reading every piece of information available on the sub-niche market. VC job isn’t just about meeting new founders and deciding whether to invest in their ideas. There’s so much more happening behind the scenes in a VC firm, and an immense amount to learn. I’m genuinely excited and grateful to be learning all these things :)

Internships are a great way to break into VC. It's how I broke in! I did it through Harlem Capital. Harlem Capital's intern program has 3 cohorts per year of 6-8 interns/fellows. 𝟑𝟗% 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥-𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐕𝐂 𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦. They have landed at incredible firms including: Insight Partners Bain Capital Ventures Lerer Hippeau Redpoint Drive Capital Westbound Equity Partners Slow Ventures M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund VamosVentures SIERRA Ventures JetBlue Ventures + so many more. I highly recommend getting your feet wet in VC via part-time internships. You can learn the VC world in a low-stakes way while also starting to build your network. #venturecapital #vc #recruiting

Applications for gradCapital’s Associate Program are Now Open, and here’s why applying for it 2 years ago was the best decision I made as a college student: VC internships are highly sought after for various reasons - Meeting startup founders, gaining an up-close view of the ecosystem, and an extremely talented peer network, to name a few. Post a VC internship, you're almost bound to be an outlier in every interview room, no matter what roles you apply for next till you graduate. But none of the usual VC perks encompass the massive impact gC has had on my life - it's where I've met some of my favourite people (FYI, multiple gC Associates have hosted me in new cities across the country Yashasvi Bhatt Aditya Padhi :)) and truly pushed my expectations of what I believed I could achieve. Back when I applied to the program in my 1st year of undergrad, I had to Google the term "Venture Capital" before hitting Apply on the form. Since then, I've lead the program with the greatest co-workers you could ask for (shoutout Anupam Garg and Annesha Sarkar) and I'm onto my third term of working at the fund with the coolest bosses of all time - Abhishek Sethi and Prateek Behera. In short, don't let your imposter syndrome/laziness take this away from you. Apply to the program now if you're into startups (or not). Deadline is 24th August, 2024. Link to the application form is in the first comment.

Brewing Growth & Innovation: My KOFFi ☕ Internship Experience Interning as a Founder's Office- Intern at KOFFi, a fintech startup redefining fund parking solutions for SMEs, was an enriching and transformative journey. Originally planned as a 3-month stint, my internship was shortened to 2 months (Oct-Nov 2024) due to academic commitments. I’m deeply grateful to Prajwal Manalwar ☕ and Shantanu Bante for their understanding, guidance, and the opportunity to contribute meaningfully during my time at KOFFi. 📚 Financial Deep Dives & Insights Each day brought new learning opportunities, from understanding fund parking mechanisms and money market instruments to exploring business credit scoring systems, treasury management strategies, and the factors driving market dynamics for gold and bank FD returns. These experiences deepened my knowledge of how innovative financial solutions can address real-world challenges for businesses. 💡 Contributions That Mattered Working at KOFFi wasn’t just about ticking off tasks—it was about creating impact. -Researched financial trends, market dynamics, and regulatory frameworks. -Planned social media strategies and curated content to shape brand identity. -Designed newsletters to enhance communication and engagement. -Explored product features and identified key industry events for founders. -Streamlined processes and tackled operational tasks, reinforcing the importance of small details in a startup’s success. 🌱 Growth Through Experience This internship taught me the value of balancing quality and efficiency under tight deadlines, how adaptability fuels success in dynamic environments, and the critical role collaboration plays in driving innovation. I gained a firsthand understanding of how startups transform theoretical concepts into impactful solutions, blending financial expertise with technological precision. 🙏 Gratitude & Takeaways A huge thank you to Prajwal and Shantanu for their exceptional mentorship and for creating a space where learning, innovation, and growth thrive. This experience wasn’t just an internship—it was a masterclass in startup operations, teamwork, and the art of building solutions that matter. Here’s to turning challenges into opportunities and to the mentors who inspire us to aim higher! 🚀 #InternshipJourney #FintechInnovation #StartupExperience

My 10-week internship at Blackfinch Ventures is now coming to an end and I couldn’t have had a more transformational and productive experience. Everyone in the Ventures team went above and beyond to involve me in their day-to-day, assign me plenty of my own projects and responsibility, and provide insightful feedback to aid my professional development. I did my upmost to fit as much into the 10 weeks as I could with the help of the wider team; here are some of my highlights: ✅ Spent five weeks 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗣𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵-𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆-𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘀 at next to zero cost. The integration of multiple APIs and further complex functionality to gather information from the web and social outlets allowed me to summarise, filter, and provide scoring logic for potential deals not identifiable through traditional platforms. I spent 90 minutes presenting my outcomes to the wider team at the culmination of my MVP. ✅ Participated in 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟬 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘀 with the founders of exciting new tech companies and members of the BF Ventures deals team. My engineering background helped me here in conversing with founders and making the right notes. I was able to join at least one call with every member of the deals team which gave me insight as to how each member of the team navigates their calls differently. ✅ 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗺𝘆 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗩𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 using my notes. Further presentational work included producing graphical material on our portfolio companies’ performance which I 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗶𝗻 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝗹𝘆 𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗼 𝘂𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀. ✅ Took over 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗼 𝗯𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗳𝗶𝘁𝘀 for a few weeks where I negotiated discounted rates with companies providing services that can accelerate the growth of Blackfinch’s current portfolio companies. Part [1/2]