Tom Guillermin, co-founder and CTO of Sandfall Interactive and creator of “Clair Obscur, Expedition 33.” This game generated $165 million in gross revenue by May 2025 with no venture funding!
AFP via Getty Images
I have been in the venture capital business for 15 years, and I want to share some honest advice, especially for college students who are curious about VC. This is personal to me, I spoke at Web Summit on this very topic: “How to Land a VC Job.”
My godson just started college, and I know how overwhelming the headlines can be right now. Tech layoffs, AI is killing jobs — It’s enough to scare anyone off.
No college degree will prepare you to be a great venture capitalist. You become a great VC by constant learning and meeting founders. But, there are a few strategies I’ve learned in my career:
Step 1: Don’t Start Your Career in Venture Capital
Yep. You read that right. Venture sounds glamorous, but for sure you will grow much faster by working inside the industry, not watching it from the outside. If you’re passionate about AI, biotech, fintech, whatever — go work at a startup or growth-stage company in that space. It doesn’t matter if you’re in product, engineering, marketing or ops. What matters is being close to the action. Being a consultant or investment banker might sound like a fast track to VC. It’s not.
If you are in love with an industry, work in the industry. Does not matter what you do in the company itself. It’s always so much better to be in it than lurking from the outside. That’s what makes you valuable to a VC firm. You’ll have seen what works from the inside.
Step 2 – Pick an Industry You’re Obsessed With
OK, fine. You don’t want to wait. So how do you actually get in? Start by picking an industry you genuinely love. Not “kind of like.” Not “it seems hot.” I mean really love — the kind that keeps you up at night because you can’t stop thinking about it. You are addicted to the industry news even if no one was paying you to.
Because in early-stage VC, your edge comes from having real conviction. If it feels like a job, it won’t work. But if you’re truly obsessed — whether it’s AI, climate tech, consumer, fintech, space, healthcare, gaming, whatever — you’ll naturally want to meet every founder, read every news story, track every trend.
Step 3: Create A List of VCs Investing in That Industry
Once you’ve picked the industry you love, the next move is simple: figure out who’s writing the checks and learn how venture capital actually works. Go on Crunchbase, PitchBook or, heck, just ask ChatGPT, and start building your list of venture firms that actively invest in the space you love.
Let’s say you’re obsessed with gaming. Here are a few VCs investing in that world:
Each of these firms has deep domain expertise and portfolio companies you can start studying today. Follow them on LinkedIn, read their blog posts, subscribe to their newsletters. Learn how they talk, what they invest in and how they think. The goal is to get to know their portfolio better than they do.
Step 4: Start Studying the Companies (No One’s Stopping You)
You don’t need anyone’s permission to study these companies. Start learning everything about the top studios and up-and-coming breakout titles. Download the games. Play them. Follow the developers. Read user reviews. Track what’s working — and what’s not.
VCs are constantly looking for people who bring original insight and hands-on perspective. If you show up with deep knowledge and strong opinions, you’re already 10 steps ahead of the pack.
Step 5: Ping an Investor — and Tell Them Something They Don’t Already Know
Once you’ve studied the space, it’s time to reach out. Find the email or LinkedIn profile of a gaming-focused VC. Don’t ask for a job. Send them companies.
DM on X or email them directly or ping them on Linkedin. Ask them if they are OK with you sending them new gaming companies once a week. Ask for feedback on the quality of companies you send. So you can improve. After a few weeks, if there’s a consistent exchange, ask if you can list yourself as a venture scout on LinkedIn or your resume.
See? You don’t need permission to start scouting companies. You don’t need a job title to think like a VC. You absolutely don’t need permission to start being an expert in any industry.
Step 6: Don’t Just Research — Show Up
As a venture scout, being a researcher or an outsider isn’t enough. You need to build relationships with founders. If you want to break into venture, you have to be in the room where the founders are.
Talk to founders. Ask about what they’re building. Offer to help. Maybe it’s feedback, connections or even just being a sounding board. This is how you start building real deal flow. This is how you earn trust.
And don’t do this for just one VC firm. Repeat this for multiple firms. Become the person they call when they want to know what’s happening on the ground.
This is how you get started with early stage venture capital. Good luck!
