Advice from Dylan Hoffman (Cohort 7 Member) on pursuing a career in VC

Congratulations Dylan Hoffman who joined Touchdown Ventures as a Senior Associate! Congrats, Dylan!

Below are some of the biggest pieces of advice that Dylan (GoingVC Cohort 7 Member) would like to share with those who are pursuing VC for their next career move 📝

1. Managing your networking is key. After I (quickly) exhausted my personal VC network, I started tracking VC firms based on personal interest and potential hiring opportunities. I leveraged the Wharton network extensively (graduated from their MBA program in May). I also reached out cold a lot - LinkedIn / Twitter / direct outreach forms on VC websites. Keeping track of all of these connections and relationships was key.
2. I kept a log of every VC question I was asked during an interview so I could continue iterating on my answers and always always prepped for each interview by familiarizing myself on the firms' sector(s) of focus and potentially even coming with a few companies of interest.
3. Persistence is key! I had to sift through a lot of non-answers / no's before I started gaining traction. It was a solid 4 months before I got my first interview with Touchdown, so keep going!
4. Targeting VCs that bring on interns or fellows (look at websites and LinkedIn) can be low-hanging fruit. I curated a list in my networking tracker of VC firms that did that and had two fellowships before I got my full-time offer.

Thank you, Dylan for the nuggets of advice for those who are actively pursuing a career in venture capital!