Over the past two and half months I worked as a financial analyst intern at a consumer-focused venture capital firm. During the time I spent doing research and analysis, assisting portfolio companies, helping with due diligence and generating fundraising flow for the firm, I caught a glimpse of some of the big trends happening in the US consumer market.

Looking back at my internship, it is really fun to work in venture capital. For the most part I spend my time thinking about new technologies/companies and interacting with people who are convinced they are onto the next big thing – this is a highly charged and energizing job. I would argue it is one of the most intellectually stimulating jobs that exists in the world. For evidence of this, look at what jobs people self select into after they’ve already made life changing amounts of wealth. Mostly they become VC’s or investors, because even aside from compensation, it is a blast to do day to day. And the entrepreneurs I interact everyday are smart and passionate about what they are doing. For example, I have met with a female funder who is doing an online platform for cryptocurrency which is digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange that uses strong cryptography to secure financial transactions, control the creation of additional units, and verify the transfer of assets. In other words, cryptocurrency is a kind of digital currency, virtual currency or alternative currency. The decentralized control of each cryptocurrency works through distributed ledger technology, typically a blockchain (is a growing list of records, called blocks, which are linked using cryptography. Blockchains which are readable by the public are widely used by cryptocurrencies), that serves as a public financial transaction database. Bitcoin, first released as open-source software in 2009, is generally considered the first decentralized cryptocurrency. Since then, over 4000 alternative coin variants of bitcoin have been created. Working in the venture capital, I have the opportunity to get to know the most up-to-date technologies and trends. I can also interact with many people whose in the industry and absorb knowledge from them.

Originally I thought early stage investing would be mainly about themes and visions for the future. This is partially true, but in the end VC’s are still money managers, whom compete solely on the basis of who can make the most money against other money managers. Comfort and familiarity with financial valuation, deal terms, etc is a necessary part of the job for execution purposes. Most VC’s are flooded with thousands and thousands of deals a year that they want to consider for investment, yet will only end up doing a handful as an entire firm. (like 10 or less, depending on the size of the fund) Also partners sit on boards, which have recurring meetings on a regular basis and in principal also require time invested directly in helping the company.

As a conclusion, VC is an industry that requires a broad range of skills. To succeed, you have to be expert in many arear such as marketing/product/SEO/technology, and at the same a highly-skilled networker, an expert problem solver, and most importantly, a risk-taker.