Overview of Venture Capital Funds and Their Core Functions
A venture capital fund is a pooled investment vehicle that provides funding to early-stage companies with high growth potential. It is managed by a venture capital firm (also called a general partner, or GP) on behalf of limited partners (LPs) — which may include pension funds, family offices, corporations, or institutional investors. The goal is to generate returns by backing startups that can scale and eventually exit through acquisition or IPO.
Each fund typically has a fixed life span, often 8 to 10 years, and follows a clear cycle: fundraising, investing, supporting portfolio companies, and exiting investments. During this process, a venture fund must balance deal selection, portfolio management, LP reporting, and ecosystem participation — which creates a wide range of job roles.
At the center of a VC fund’s operation is its investment team. These professionals are responsible for sourcing potential deals, evaluating startups, negotiating terms, and managing investments post-deployment. However, successful funds also rely heavily on non-investment functions — such as platform teams that help startups grow, and operations teams that manage finance, compliance, and communication with LPs.
Unlike corporate finance or banking, venture capital involves a blend of financial analysis, human judgment, and relationship-building. Most investment decisions are made with incomplete data, which makes pattern recognition, founder insight, and sector intuition crucial.
In Vietnam, where the VC industry is still maturing, many funds operate lean teams — often combining multiple functions in one role. This creates both challenges and learning opportunities, especially for professionals entering the field.
Understanding how a venture capital fund works is essential context before exploring specific job paths — from analysts to partners, from platform roles to fund management.
Key Roles in a Venture Capital Fund
Venture capital funds may vary in size and focus, but most share a common internal structure divided between investment, platform, and operations. Each role contributes to the fund’s ability to identify great startups, support portfolio growth, and maintain strong relationships with investors.
Investment Team
This is the core engine of most VC firms.
- Analysts handle research, market mapping, deal sourcing, and early-stage screening.
- Associates dive deeper into due diligence, support deal execution, and often work across multiple sectors.
- Principals are mid-to-senior level professionals who lead deals, build networks, and take on more decision-making.
- Partners (General Partners or Managing Partners) set the fund’s strategy, approve investments, and maintain LP relationships. They often serve on startup boards and play a visible role in the ecosystem.
Platform Team
Platform roles focus on startup support and community building.
- Talent leads help portfolio companies recruit key hires.
- Marketing or brand managers amplify the fund’s presence and promote portfolio milestones.
- Founder support or community managers create value through events, content, and internal networks.
While more common in larger or global funds, platform roles are emerging in Vietnam’s maturing VC landscape.
Operations and Compliance
Behind every fund is a team managing internal systems.
- Fund administrators track capital calls, distributions, and LP reporting.
- Legal and compliance officers ensure contracts, governance, and regulatory requirements are met.
- Finance controllers manage internal budgets and fund-level accounting.
In smaller or early-stage VC firms — including many in Vietnam — individuals may wear multiple hats, combining deal work, marketing, and operations in one role. This flexibility offers steep learning curves and broad exposure for those entering the industry.
Career Pathways into Venture Capital
Unlike many traditional industries, venture capital doesn’t follow a single, standardized career track. People enter the field from a wide range of backgrounds — including finance, consulting, startup operations, and sometimes even academia. What matters more than titles is whether a person can evaluate potential, understand risk, and build meaningful relationships within the startup ecosystem.
A common entry point is through investment banking or consulting. Professionals from these fields typically bring strong analytical skills and familiarity with financial modeling, industry research, and due diligence. While this route is more common in mature markets, it’s gaining traction in Vietnam as local VC firms seek candidates who can combine structure with startup awareness.
Another increasingly valued pathway is through startup experience. Former operators — product managers, marketers, or early team members — understand the realities of growth-stage companies and can assess a startup’s trajectory from a practical point of view. Some venture capitalists are even former founders who bring a founder-centric mindset and know how to support startups beyond the pitch deck.
Internships and fellowships are useful on-ramps, especially for students or early-career professionals. In Vietnam, more VC firms are offering structured internship programs, though many still rely on referrals or networks to recruit talent.
In recent years, there’s also been a rise in MBA candidates seeking VC roles, especially from regional schools in Singapore, Korea, or Australia. However, an MBA is not a prerequisite — particularly in smaller funds where agility and local insight often matter more than formal credentials.
In Vietnam’s emerging ecosystem, breaking into VC often requires a mix of ecosystem presence, curiosity, and the ability to add value immediately — whether through research, sourcing, or operational insight. The door may not always be open, but it often opens to those already contributing from the outside.
Skills and Traits That Matter Most in VC Jobs
Venture capital is a relationship- and judgment-driven industry. While strong analytical skills are essential, success in VC often depends just as much on how a person thinks, listens, and communicates — especially in unpredictable and fast-moving environments like early-stage investing.
At the foundation is the ability to analyze markets and evaluate business models. VC professionals need to assess whether a startup is solving a real problem, whether its market is large enough, and whether the team has a credible plan to grow. This requires both structured analysis (such as revenue projections or competitive mapping) and pattern recognition built through repeated exposure to different companies.
Equally important is founder judgment. Unlike public market investing, venture decisions often hinge on the quality of the people behind the idea. VC teams must learn to read founders’ intent, mindset, and ability to execute under pressure. That means being observant, asking the right questions, and maintaining a clear but open perspective.
Soft skills also matter. The ability to build trust, offer honest feedback, and maintain long-term relationships is core to the job. Startups evolve over time, and VCs must stay close enough to support founders while also representing the fund’s long-term interest.
In smaller markets like Vietnam, adaptability is critical. VC team members often juggle roles — from writing thought pieces to speaking at events, building deal pipelines, and supporting portfolio companies. There’s rarely a rigid job description.
Other valuable traits include curiosity, initiative, and a calm approach to risk. Many decisions are made with incomplete data — so those who can think clearly, ask better questions, and keep learning quickly tend to grow into more senior responsibilities.
Ultimately, venture capital is less about predicting the future and more about understanding people, markets, and momentum — before they become obvious.
Challenges, Expectations, and How to Prepare
From the outside, venture capital can seem exciting — meetings with founders, attending demo days, making high-stakes decisions. While those moments do exist, the day-to-day of VC work is more grounded: reading pitch decks, conducting due diligence, writing internal memos, and following up with startups. It’s a job built on consistency, not spotlight.
One of the biggest challenges for those entering the field is the long feedback loop. Unlike public markets or consulting, where results show quickly, in VC it can take years to know whether an investment was truly successful. That requires patience and the ability to stay focused on process over outcome — especially early in one’s career.
Another reality: VC firms are lean by design. There are few formal roles, limited hiring rounds, and often no structured training programs. New hires are expected to learn fast, take initiative, and contribute value immediately — whether by sourcing deals, organizing events, or managing founder relationships.
To stand out, aspiring VC professionals should develop a clear point of view on sectors, founders, and trends. Writing short deal notes, mapping industries, or building a network in the local startup scene all help demonstrate that you’re thinking like an investor — even before you’re officially in the seat.
In Vietnam, where the VC landscape is still evolving, many firms value candidates who understand the local business environment, are comfortable with ambiguity, and can operate across different functions. Bilingual communication, exposure to regional markets, and experience in high-growth startups can be strong differentiators.
For those serious about joining the field, preparation goes beyond reading investment books — it’s about spending time in the ecosystem, asking smart questions, and showing you can spot value before everyone else does.
