I had the chance to go back to HEC a couple of weeks ago for a 2-hour intervention within the “Inside VC” course and I was asked to talk about the day-to-day life of a young VC — in particular the sourcing part of the job. A lot of people asked for the slides, hence I decided to make them available for everyone.

1. 11
THE « YOUNG VCs »
VC ASSOCIATES & PRINCIPALS
WHAT’S THE DAY TO DAY OF A VC?

2. 22
First, a few examples of
VC ASSOCIATES & PRINCIPALS

3. 33
Evgenia Plotnikova
WHARTON
SCIENCES PO
EXPERIENCES IN FINANCE & CONSULTING
4 YEARS M&A (JP MORGAN)
2 YEARS PRIVATE EQUITY (TPG)
VC FOR 2 YEARS
FOCUS ON SaaS

4. 44
Bartosz Jakubowski
HEC PARIS
MASTER AT ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE
FINANCE EXPERIENCES (CITI and GOLDMAN SACHS)
VC FOR 3 YEARS
FOCUS ON SaaS AND CONSUMER MOBILE
INTERESTED IN DECENTRALIZATION,
AUTOMATION AND HEALTH-RELATED TECH

5. 55
Julien Bek
WARWICK AND THEN CAMBRIDGE
EXPERIENCES IN STARTUPS
FOUNDER OF 2 STARTUPS
VC FOR 3 YEARS

6. 66
Alexis Robert
TELECOM PARIS
MASTER AT HEC PARIS
CO-FOUNDER & CTO OF 2 STARTUPS
VC FOR 3 YEARS

7. 77
Adam Lasri
DAUPHINE AND THEN LSE
GAP YEAR IN FINANCE (M&A/PE)
3 YEARS TMT M&A ANALYST AT BARCLAYS
1 YEAR HEAD OF EXPANSION AT JINN (STARTUP)
VC FOR 1 YEAR

8. 88
Pierre Entremont
HEC PARIS
INTERNSHIPS IN PRIVATE EQUITY & AT ROCKET INTERNET
STARTUP FOUNDER
1 YEAR MCKINSEY
1 YEAR STARTUP STUDIO
VC FOR 3 YEARS

9. 99
Armelle de Tinguy
ESSEC
SCIENCES PO
3 YEARS TECH M&A ANALYST
VC FOR 3 YEARS

10. 1010
Eleonore Crespo
MINES DE PARIS
EXPERIENCES IN NEUROPHYSIOLOGY & STARTUPS
1 YEAR PROJECT MANAGER (JCDECAUX)
3 YEARS PRODUCT & FINANCE (GOOGLE)
VC FOR 1 YEAR

11. 1111
Louis Coppey
TELECOM PARIS & HEC PARIS
MASTER AT THE MIT
VC & STARTUP EXPERIENCES
VC FOR 2 YEARS

12. 1212
Matthieu Marchand
HEC PARIS
SCIENCES PO
DIGITAL CONSULTING
& PROJECT MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCES
VC FOR 3 YEARS

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What they seem to have in common…
Strong Academic Background
Startup/Tech & Financial Experience
3+ years experience

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A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A
VC ASSOCIATE

15. 1515
Jonathan Userovici
HEC PARIS
RESEARCH AT ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE
EXPERIENCES IN FINANCE / M&A and
Entrepreneur-in-residence AT ROCKET
INTERNET
VC FOR 3 YEARS

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Responsibilities
&
Roles

17. 17
Roles & Responsibilities
1 Sourcing new deals
2 Analyzing opportunities and Due Diligence
3 Closing deals & negotiating terms
4 Board participation & follow up

18. 18
“To succeed in venture capital you must be
one of the top five firms.
And to get there, you must have amazing deal
flow.”*
Marc Andreessen, 2016
* It basically means that the sourcing part in theVC industry is super important

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Sourcing new deals
1 Sourcing new deals 35%

20. 20
Talking to other VCs
20% • Deal flow Updates
• Portfolio Updates
• Sector Trends Discussions
• Gossips on the market
What I do
• Monthly calls with a VC Associate in the US
• Coffee with a Partner at Kima in Paris
• Dinner with Young VCs in London
• Meeting or working session with a P9
Associate
Examples

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Research and talking to experts
20%
• Thematic Research (top down or bottom up)
• Reading articles or research papers on new
trends
• Reading books, magazines, white papers etc
• Using research tools for market study
What I do
• Employee engagement white paper analyzing
Peakon’s investment opportunity
• Calls with Limited Partners & other experts
working at big US or European companies
• Calls with researchers in Paris Saclay labs
• Reading Traxcn market study on global Insurtech
trends
Examples

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Events and speaking at conferences
20%
• Covering thematic events
• Covering generalist tech events
• Preparing conferences and being a panelist
or speaker
• Jury in several events
What I do
• Speaker at LBS VC & Private Equity conference
• Panelist at Saastock with a portfolio company
• Attending Saastr Europa in Paris
• Organizing an event at Idinvest with portfolio (or
other relevant) companies about scaling in the US
• Jury at the Websummit
Examples

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Media and Blogging
10%
• Following all fundraising events (Europe & US
mainly)
• Tracking tech media news and major events
• Scraping relevant news on Twitter, Linkedin,
Medium and selected blogs
• Writing articles
What I do
• Creating tools to be alerted of all relevant
fundraising events in real time (pitchbook,
scraping & other confidential stuff)
• Creating relevant lists on Twitter and selected
research criteria on Linkedin
• Reading Fred Wilson latest article
• Analyzing Accel Euroscape
Examples

24. 24
Incubators and School relationships
10%
• Speaking with relevant incubators and
selected schools regularly
• Attending school and incubators event
• Mentoring and following promising startups
from schools and incubators
What I do
• Coffee with Agoranov management and meetings
with several relevant startups
• Mentoring sessions at HEC Incubator
• Meeting with Polytechnique Incubator’s Head
• Lunch with NUMA’s Director
• Dinner with The Family community
Examples

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Fundraisers*
5%
• Meeting fundraisers and taking news of the
startups they are following
• Working with fundraisers on opportunities
What I do
• Meeting with Alpha Capital Partners and an
entrepreneur for the first time
• Meeting with a team member from Chausson
Finance
• Asking a fundraiser cohorts / key numbers for an
opportunity
Examples
*Somehow a bit specific to the French ecosystem

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Business Angels
5% • Selecting Business Angels per geographies /
sectors
• Following their portfolio / new investments
• Catching up and keep being updated about
new opportunities
What I do
• Meeting Arthur Kosten in Paris about a shared
investments
• Call with Klaus Nyengaard about an opportunity in
his portfolio
• Breakfast with Marc Ménasé
Examples

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Friends and family
5%
• Spend time with the people I love
• Some people from all the other categories
above become good friends actually…
What I do
• Calling my brother & sister on latest healthcare
trends and to have an opinion on Cardiologs
• Investing in the new startup of a friend
Examples

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Others
5% • Talking to other parts of the ecosystem:
• Lawyers
• Headhunters
• …
• Talking with portfolio companies (or other random
companies) to source new opportunities
• Track where brilliant profiles work / what they build
What I do
• Ask Peakon what marketing tools they are using
• Ask Cardiologs about the best tech teams in Paris
• Ask a random startup founder about the best
entrepreneur he has met recently
• Look at new roles of all ex top management of a
recent exit / company which has raised a lot
(Klarna, Spotify, Criteo, …)
Examples

29. 29
Examples - Active Investments sourced
#SaaS
#AI
#SaaS
#Deeptech
#SaaS Enabled
Marketplace
#SaaS
#API
#SaaS Enabled
Marketplace
#Consumer
#Travel
#Consumer
#Mobility
Seed
Lead Investor
Series A
Lead Investor
Series A
Co-Lead
Investor with
Series B
Lead Investor
Series C
Investor
Series A
Lead Investor
Angel
Lead Investor
OUTBOUND OUTBOUND OUTBOUND OUTBOUND INBOUNDINBOUND INBOUND
Track where
brilliant profiles
move
AI Research,
School network
Sectorial
Research (B2B
freight trucking
platforms)
Geographical
research: hot
startups in
Denmark
Fundraiser based
in the UK
Sector tracking
for a long time
and then
fundraiser
Incubator network

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Roles & Responsibilities
2 Analyzing opportunities and Due Diligence
25%

31. 3131
But basically, we analyze the following

32. 32

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Market
Dynamics*
* Includes total adressable market, competition, exit environment,…

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PRODUCT
& TECH

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TRACTION
& USAGE

36. 36
DEFENSIBILITY

37. 37
Picking is not the most
difficult part…

38. 38
38
Roles & Responsibilities
3 Closing deals & negotiating terms
38
5%

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Roles & Responsibilities
4 Board participation, follow up,
introductions (hiring, clients…), working
sessions with portfolio companies on a
lot of different topics
17,5%

40. 40
Roles & Responsibilities
5 A few other things
7,5%
• LPs management & meetings
• Recruiting & Managing Interns / Analysts
• Help the Partner’s fundraising when raising a new fund
(documentation, meetings,…)
• Giving back to the community (HEC course, Simplon,
Social entrepreneurship mentoring etc.)
• Discussing / Pushing deals in the corridors of your office

41. 41
Annexe &
Q&A

42. Backing European Technology
& Internet Entrepreneurs
42

43. 43
Our Venture Capital
activity manages
€2.5bn
Our activity in 2017
€170m+
INVESTED IN EUROPEAN
TECH & DIGITAL STARTUPS
€90m+
TO SUPPORT EXISTING
PORTFOLIO
15
NEW INVESTMENTS
43

44. Geo / WhereStage / When Philosophy / How
€2m to €30m checks
per round
Up to €60m
per company
Europe
Minority stake
but significant enough (15-30%)
Board seat
Hands-on
Supportive
Focus on
Series A & Series B
44
International ambitions

45. $14.1m
$22m
$33.7m $7.2m
I D I N V E S T
A L V E N
F E L I X
V E R L I N V E S T
I D I N V E S T
C R E A N D U M
S E B P R I V A T E
E Q U I T Y
I D I N V E S T
V E N T E C H
I D I N V E S T
B A L D E R T O N
E Q T V E N T U R E S
S U N S T O N E
$25m
I D I N V E S T
B E N C H M A R K
X A V I E R N I E L
I D I N V E S T
W E L L I N G T O N
C R A N E
$20m
$15m
I D I N V E S T
V E N T E C H
€10m
I D I N V E S T
O R A N G E D I G I T A L
V E N T U R E S
B P I
$6.4m $10m
I D I N V E S T
I S A I
B P I
P A R T E C H
I D I N V E S T
A T O M I C O
P O I N T N I N E C A P I T A L
S A M A I P A T A
£50m
$28m
I D I N V E S T
T E M A S E K
I N D E X
G O O G L E V E N T U R E S
I D I N V E S T
T A R G E T G L O B A L
H O R I Z O N S
V E N T U R E

46. 46
$2 billion
IPO
46
$1.4 billion $300 million $840 million
IPO IPO IPO
IPOs

47. 47
$2 billion
NASDAQ IPO
$500 million
EXIT TO MATCH.COM
$300 million
EXIT TO VIVENDI
$400 million
EXIT TO FIDELITY
47
EXIT TO FIMALAC
$276 million
EXIT TO TAKE-TWO EXIT TO A US
COMPANY
$191 million
EXIT TO NOKIA
$100+ million
EXIT TO AMAZON
Zenly
Undisclosed amount Undisclosed amount

48. 48
Any questions?
@JonUsero
ju@idinvest.com