My Experience At This Internship - 1561 Words

At this internship, I was able to learn many lessons. Those lessons can be applied to any field, but also give me a competitive edge when applying for jobs in the Venture Capital industry. Many of the lessons I have learned were through hearing the stories of other people who have succeeded in the industry, and give me knowledge of what to expect the next few years of my life. Knowing that others are having the same issues as me, and indecision about which field they want to pursue is comforting. Hearing from people including successful entrepreneurs and hedge fund managers show even they have the same conflicts in their lives at my age. Even though many of the lessons can be applied to any field, I learned by far the most about Venture†¦show more content†¦Even if a company has a perfectly written business plan, and functional technology no one else has, if the work ethic and social skills of the founders are not on par, it is unlikely that the company will be able to succe ed. Brian Lee from BAM Ventures, who has backed companies such as the Honest Company, ShoeDazzle, and LegalZoom told me that he thinks some people are cut out for the work, and those who are not will not be able to succeed in the industry. He and his partner would rather back an average idea with an excellent team of founders over an excellent idea with an average team of founders. These aspects of an investment became obvious quite quickly in the internship. To further achieve my goal of better understanding how to decide what is a good investment, hearing from other investors, I learned that the success is highly reliant on the founding team. Taking that advice, I was able to sit through multiple pitches and see dozens of decks. Through that, I saw what an exceptional, average, and mediocre pitch looked like. A few founders stood out, all in the same few aspects. They had past experience in the field, and were knowledgeable about all facets of it. They also understood the risk and reward of founding a company. Being able to see how they felt made me better understand how to realize if the founder is cut out to make this company succeed. Yet, even with the perfect formula, the