I'm rarely involved with the portfolio companies' needs. They have their own outside lawyers (or at least should have...).Great thread, thanks for doing this. How involved are you on the business/investment side? Is your legal work mainly related to the Fund itself, or are you involved with the portfolio companies' corporate needs as well?
GC at a VC. Taking Qs. Forum
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Anonymous User
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Re: GC at a VC. Taking Qs.
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Anonymous User
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Re: GC at a VC. Taking Qs.
How many years of BL experience is ideal to make the jump?
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Anonymous User
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Re: GC at a VC. Taking Qs.
I answered the question above. I will not repeat myself.
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snagglepuss
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Re: GC at a VC. Taking Qs.
What's job security like in these jobs? What's the average tenure of a VC GC? I feel like I read about new lead investors stepping in at VCs a lot - wouldn't some of them bring their own counsel?
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Re: GC at a VC. Taking Qs.
That's unclear to me. For a more "established" VC that's raised more than one fund, I'd say a tenure is as long as the GC wants it to be. On a $300mm fund with 2% annual management fee, it's easy to pay the bills for a while and it takes a long time for a VC to die. I would say it's far more secure than your typical legal position at a start-up, and definitely preferable.What's job security like in these jobs? What's the average tenure of a VC GC? I feel like I read about new lead investors stepping in at VCs a lot - wouldn't some of them bring their own counsel?
Regarding outside counsel vs. hiring inhouse counsel, it's always a difficult decision. I'm biased about this, but I think it depends on the volume of deals and degree of fundraising a VC desires to do. If you're going to be raising multiple funds and they're all intended to be in nine figures, and if you intend to do a certain number of deals per year... the VC should have a GC.
I know tons of VCs getting by without one, but I doubt it's a function of cost. It's just very hard to find people. Poaching from a law firm seems like an obvious route (like what happened to me), but your typical venture capitalist doesn't really know how to do that or how to judge an associate's skillset unless the associate and the fund have worked together very closely for a long period of time. Toward that end, I know plenty of associates who have been offered jobs at VCs but never took it.
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snagglepuss
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Re: GC at a VC. Taking Qs.
Thank you! This is fascinating to me since I feel like your role is only about 10 or so years old, meaning there's little information out there about it.
One more: you already touched on the "repetitiveness" point people like to bring up when discussing the VC legal practice area, but how much of the job is novel? I imagine people have already developed financing models for each stage of the process. So, how much room do you see for GCs in this space to devise new approaches and propose strategies to the investors or portfolio companies?
One more: you already touched on the "repetitiveness" point people like to bring up when discussing the VC legal practice area, but how much of the job is novel? I imagine people have already developed financing models for each stage of the process. So, how much room do you see for GCs in this space to devise new approaches and propose strategies to the investors or portfolio companies?
