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Silicon Valley’s top-tier VC prefer their own people? 8525 startup survey: Fund background raises the odds by nearly 3 times; Chinese educational background is negatively correlated
Beating AI breaking news: When starting a business in Silicon Valley, which credentials make it easiest to secure money from top-tier venture capital? Graduating from a prestigious university and work experience at a major company both help, but the greatest advantage, surprisingly, is having previously worked at a top-tier venture capital firm.
Menlo Ventures partner Deedy Das used Harmonic data to analyze 2019 to 2026-founded 8525 U.S. startups. He examined 63 founder-background characteristics to compare which people were more likely to obtain lead investments from leading venture capital firms at the seed or Series A stage.
The results show that founders with experience at top-tier VC institutions had roughly 2.83 times the odds of obtaining lead investment compared with otherwise similar people, ranking first. Founders who had worked at frontier AI labs and those with cybersecurity industry backgrounds reached 2.16 times and 2.03 times, respectively. By comparison, a top university background was 1.41 times, and former Google employees were 1.29 times.
So-called “former VC employees” are not only investors; they also include entrepreneurs-in-residence, researchers, and even interns. Many originally incubated startup projects within the fund, were familiar with the investment process, and had direct access to investors. This pre-established network and information advantage may be an important reason they find it easier to obtain financing.
The study also identified several negatively correlated factors. Founders with a MBA degree had odds of obtaining lead investment from top-tier VC of 0.65; those educated in China had 0.59; and teams whose oldest founder was over 50 years old had 0.57.
Original link https://m.theblockbeats.info/flash/374954