How to make a break into venture capital?

Not all career trajectories you can navigate through a college degree and there is no text book to read or open welcoming arms to get you there.

Author

Mala Ramakrishnan
March 17, 2025

Breaking into venture capital isn't straightforward—there's no textbook or roadmap. However, there are strategic paths you can take. Many successful VCs start with experience in investment banking, management consulting, or working with startups and given a leg in through the network. Networking is crucial; connecting with industry leaders and attending events like those at Founders Creative can open doors.

Join us at Founders Creative for live sessions where you'll network with seasoned venture capitalists with the specific goal of learning how you can make a break into venture capital and discuss what it takes to get on board seats and the track that you can take there. Let's explore the opportunities together and make your break into venture capital a reality. You can attend any of our sessions here: https://lu.ma/founderscreative?tag=vc

Session with a VC: Investing in Startups [Online] · Wed March 19 . 1-2pm PST

Join Founders Creative for a live session on investing in AI startups hosted by Progressive Ventures. We will discuss the state of the industry and investing in AI-first companies.

lu.ma/ujo7rer7

Making a break into AI Venture Capital: San Francisco · Thur March 20 . 10:30-12pm

Join Founders Creative for a live session on investing in AI startups. We will discuss the state of the industry and how to make a break into venture capital.

lu.ma/xzyextgd

Venture Capital investing: Live Networking · Menlo Park. Fri March 21 . 11:30-1pm

Join partners from Progressive Ventures in a live networking session on making a break into venture capital and landing board seats on startups.

lu.ma/hpdbwz1t

Upcoming Events Highlights

AI Innovators Forum: NVIDIA GTC by Progressive Ventures & The Agentic · March 19 6-9pm · Sunnyvale

Are you ready to be inspired by the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs? Join us for an empowering evening where visionary technologists, VCs, and founders.

lu.ma/innovators3

Deep Dive Council sessions

Are you ready to find your tribe and increase your domain expertise, find a peer council, and advocacy that helps you land your next role?

AI Engineering Summit · Mar 28 · 12-5:30pm . Palo Alto

Join us for a half day summit on the AI revolution in the engineering function. The sessions are packed with brilliant technologists from every big name company in the valley.

lu.ma/engsummit

AI Go-to-Market Salon · Lunch & Learn | Mar 21 12-1:30pm · Mountain View

In the new era of AI, the go-to-market function is being redefined on multiple levels. The traditional models for lead generation are being revolutionized by AI. Join us for a working session to explore this and more.

lu.ma/gtmsalon3

AI Executive Dinner · March 28 6-9pm · Los Altos

Join us for an exclusive dinner designed for senior AI leaders to deepen connections, exchange ideas. Network to take your career to the next level.

lu.ma/ozotworp

Blog of the week

Chatbots, CoPilots, and Choreographers: Where will you start with AI Agents?

Navigating the AI Revolution: Choosing Your First Step with Intelligent Agents

founderscreative.substack.com/p/chatbots-copilots-and-choreographers


Featured below: VC Panel from AI Kaleidoscope featuring Vince Lane, Raghu Madabushi, Mariette Wharton, Faye Sahai.

Join us at the Google Huddle for our next AI Kaleidoscope: for Founders by Founders, April 17 2-5pm PST

Join us at an upcoming events: lu.ma/founderscreative and sign up for our newsletter: www.founderscreative.org/#newsletter

Sponsors this week

TheAgentic

The AI Agent Infrastructure Company. We believe that the future of AI needs to be owned and driven by thousands of innovative AI founders and not big tech. At TheAgentic we are out to change that. TheAgentic provides a complete suite of agent infrastructure— reasoning LLMs, a digital worker framework, and web automation—enabling startups, AI founders and SaaS companies to build, deploy and scale with ease, and at the lowest possible cost.

www.theagentic.ai

Join us at an upcoming events: lu.ma/founderscreative and sign up for our newsletter: www.founderscreative.org/#newsletter