TLDR:
Bessemer Venture Partners partner Jeremy Levine has revealed how the firm selects and trains its venture capitalists (VCs). Levine said the company hires apprentice analysts and gives them “enormous agency”, unlike other firms’ VCs. The new recruits write a memo to justify investments, and while no one will be asked to leave, being consistently incorrect about investments will result in removal from the team. The programme has spawned successful alumni at firms including Lightspeed, General Catalyst and Andreessen Horowitz.
Levine detailed the application process for prospective apprentice analysts, saying entrance onto the scheme was exclusive, with at least 1,000 candidates for each of the two to four spots available. The final candidate is typically hired from a top university and “goes above and beyond” in the recruitment process, Levine said. In addition, existing analysts are asked for their verdict on a candidate and even highlight any weakness.
Independent thinking is particularly prized as a quality by Bessemer, Levine said, adding: “You have to have enormous conviction in your ideas and your thoughts.”
Selected candidates join the company for a two-year apprenticeship. The aim is to train them to operate effectively in a high-stakes environment, Levine said. “We take away the checkbook and say, ‘Hey, this didn’t work out, you should find something else to do’,” he said of underperforming VCs, although he stressed that they were not fired.
Bessemer is known for investments into the likes of LinkedIn, Yelp, Shopify and Pinterest, with offices in Silicon Valley, New York and Herzliya.
