Venture capital, from the outside in.

Through one of four routes: operating experience at a startup that grew, founding something, two to three years in banking or consulting for the growth-stage funds, or technical depth in a field a fund underwrites. There is no recruiting cycle. Roles appear when a fund raises or someone leaves, and they go to people the partnership already knows, so the most effective preparation is a public record in one sector: a market map, a memo, a sourcing list with dates.

Origination and judgement rather than modelling. Expect a conversation about what you have found and what you believe, a sourcing exercise, a take-home investment memo, a live market sizing, and conversations with every partner. Growth-stage funds add a modelling exercise. The technical questions that do appear are about the cap table and the term sheet: pre-money and post-money, the option pool, SAFE conversion and liquidation preferences.

The register of who owns what in a company: every share, option, warrant and convertible instrument, with a fully diluted percentage for each. Every round is negotiated over it, and every term that sounds like a price is an instruction about how the next version is drawn. The Cap Table Builder on this site takes one company from founding through a SAFE and a priced seed round with every number worked.

The right of a preferred shareholder to receive a stated amount, usually the money invested, from the proceeds of a sale before common shareholders receive anything. A non-participating preference lets the holder choose between the preference and their as-converted share; a participating one gives them both, usually up to a cap. The Exit Waterfall Lab writes one cheque six ways and shows what each pays at any exit value.

They are different kinds of thing. A SAFE is an American instrument for investing before a company has a price: cash now, shares at the next priced round. SEIS is a UK tax relief that gives an individual 50% of an early-stage investment back as income tax relief. They meet in the advance subscription agreement, the UK instrument drafted to do the SAFE’s job while keeping SEIS and EIS relief, which a US-form SAFE would lose.