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Venture Capital Interview Prep

Venture capital careers

Break into venture capital.

Sourced guides to venture capital firms, breaking in, compensation and the interview — everything you need to land a seat.

Explore the fundsBrowse the guides

Written and edited by Nadia Brandt. How these guides are made.

The guides

Firms our guides cover

Index VenturesAtomicoInsight PartnersBalderton CapitalAntlerHV CapitalEQT VenturesNorthzoneCreandumEarlybirdSeedcampPicus CapitalLakestarPoint NinePartech

The four guides

Everything the interview tests — in four guides.

Start anywhere. Each guide is a complete, sourced map of one part of the venture capital path — from how the funds are built to the exact questions you’ll be asked.

Chapter 01

The Funds

How a fund works, and one guide per firm

How a venture fund actually makes money, who the major firms are in Europe and the US, and a guide to each one — the process, the format, and what they test.

In this guide

Read the full guide
Chapter 02

Breaking In

From banking, consulting, operating or founding

There is no on-cycle in venture. The route in depends entirely on where you are coming from, and each background is screened for something different.

In this guide

Read the full guide
Chapter 03

The Interview

The deck review, the memo, market sizing, cap tables

There is no LBO test. A venture interview hands you a real pitch deck and asks what you think, then a take-home memo, a market you have to size out loud, and cap-table maths.

In this guide

Read the full guide
Chapter 04

Money & Career

Pay by level and geography, carry, progression

What the job pays at each level in London, Berlin and the US, why carry in venture behaves nothing like carry in buyout, and where the role leads.

In this guide

Read the full guide

Latest guides

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Not sure where you stand?

Take the interview readiness check — 18 questions across the 4 areas funds test. See the answer as you go, get a score, and learn exactly what to study next.

Take the readiness check

FAQ

Venture capital interview FAQ

What does a venture capital interview test?
Four things, and none of them is a modelling test: a live pitch-deck review where you say what you think, a take-home investment memo, a market you have to size out loud, and cap-table maths. Then fund knowledge and why this fund. See the question frameworks.
Is there an LBO test in a VC interview?
No. Venture backs companies that have no debt capacity and often no revenue, so there is nothing to leverage. The analytical test is whether you can judge a market, a team and a price with incomplete information. What replaces it.
How do you get into venture capital?
There is no on-cycle process. Seats open irregularly, most funds hire one or two juniors a year, and many are filled from the fund's own network before a posting exists. The routes that work are operating experience, banking or consulting, a technical background, or a visiting-analyst programme. The routes that actually work.
What is a visiting analyst programme?
A paid, fixed-term seat, usually five to twelve months, that several European funds run on a dated annual cycle. It is the most reliable entry point into the industry and the one candidates most often miss, because the deadlines are published once and rarely repeated. Which funds run one.
How much does venture capital pay?
Less in cash than private equity at the same level, and the carry takes far longer to mean anything, because a venture fund returns capital over ten years or more. Published per-level figures are scarce and most public numbers are self-reported estimates rather than disclosed pay. How the pay actually works.

Walk in knowing how the fund makes money.

Read the funds guide first. The readiness check will tell you what to do after that.

Read the funds guideTake the readiness check