“Unexpectedly, the salary of VC is so low.”

Gu Xiao, a Post-00 girl with a master’s degree from a famous overseas university with a 985 degree, joined a well-known VC institution in Beijing for an internship at the beginning of the year, with 120 yuan a day. She was accompanied by two academic bullies of Qingbei undergraduate. When she heard the ten thousand dollar salary, she turned around.

Xu Zhou, who has been in the venture capital circle for many years, is not surprised: “it’s just financial migrant workers. I’ve seen well-known RMB fund investment analysts offer a monthly salary of 5000 yuan, and even VP (vice president) only gets 15000 yuan a month.” There has always been a chain of disdain in the financial circle - hedging > PE / VC > investment banking > Consulting > commercial banks > insurance companies > the four major. The elite of famous schools often enter this circle.

Engaged in the industry closest to money, but it is far from as bright as you think. Investment managers are considered to be the most bitter bottom group in the circle, “asking for entrepreneurs and FA, but also being angry with partners. The so-called bonus and carry are just a big cake.” Xu Zhou joked.

Most people who bury their heads in the circle are well aware of a cruel truth - the myth of making a hundred times return and getting rich overnight belongs to only a few people at the top of the tower.

I’m an intern in VC, 200 yuan a day. I’m going to start a business

With a salary of 200 yuan a day, Xiao Nan, a VC intern, quietly withdrew.

The post-95 Xueba girl has been practicing in a US dollar fund in Shanghai for one year. From the beginning of pure paperwork to now, she has fully adapted to the rhythm of a full-time investor. She can independently communicate with entrepreneurs in different industries and actively and independently carry out research and investment oriented thinking.

The excitement and sense of achievement after being satisfied and enriched by curiosity are the most fascinating place for Xiao Nan in the VC industry. Even with an internship salary of 200 yuan, she is still happy. In her own words, pure love generates electricity. “Now, this job is the fastest growing job I can reach.” Based on her attitude and performance during her work, Xiao Nan’s VP boss also conveyed her willingness to become a regular.

But entering 2022, things have changed subtly. First, the consumption and investment heat has cooled visibly. Xiao Nan used to watch the new consumption track with her boss, but now she is arranged to sort out the new tracks such as synthetic biology and agricultural technology.

Then there are major macroeconomic and geopolitical events, including the US table contraction, interest rate hike and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, superimposed with many black swans such as the impact of a new wave of epidemic. Domestic VC / PE has ushered in the most severe moment in recent years - the amount of fund-raising and investment have fallen sharply, and the number of investment cases has fallen more than expected.

Xiao Nan obviously felt the confusion of the boss and colleagues, and the rhythm within the organization suddenly slowed down, “I haven’t done it for a long time”. This also directly affected her employment. Backed by her family background in business, Xiao Nan has a plan for the next step - to start a business.

“In the future, I may devote myself to entrepreneurship first. To put it bluntly, I will make some money first, because being a VC investor is too poor.” At the same time, in her view, entrepreneurship is also a way to maintain relevance with VC / PE circles. “I will regard investment as my career for the first half of my life. No matter what my identity in the future, I will continue to pay attention to this market, which is a very certain thing.” Xiao Nan said firmly.

Wang Chen also ended the internship of a well-known VC institution in Shenzhen, packed up his bags and returned to his hometown Zhengzhou to start the business of lemon tea. Studying at Beijing University of international business and economics, Wang Chen has tried several entrepreneurial projects in the University since 2000. Although they have failed, the seeds of entrepreneurship have been buried in his heart.

In the first half of 2021, he began to invest in the resume of VC who invested in consumption. After being pushed internally by his senior brother, he entered a top PE internship with a scale of tens of billions in Beijing. He was responsible for adjusting the round a financing of a restaurant robbed by VC / PE at that time, and worked for several months with a salary of 25 yuan an hour.

After the end of the project, he came to Shenzhen and joined the investment institution that is currently biased towards consumption. He stroked all the tracks from cross-border sailing to consumer technology. “At that time, he worked very hard, and his colleagues in the institution were also very willing to teach me. He learned a lot and accumulated a lot of contacts in the investment circle.”

“But the only thing is that the salary is not as attractive as expected.” Wang Chen deliberately emphasized it. In his impression, VCs are in charge of billions and tens of billions of funds, with tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars each. However, he did not expect that the salary of front-line employees is not as good as that of large factories, which is a great contrast.

The most attractive myth in VC Circle has been working for 6 years. I haven’t seen carry yet

The filter of making a lot of money from VC is gradually broken.

From the perspective of the income of VC investors, their salary composition is mostly based on the combination of basic salary + performance bonus + carry + other (exit award, fund-raising award, etc.).

Last year, Zero2IPO Research Center released the investigation and Research Report on the salary and operation mechanism of VC / PE Institutions in 2020. The report shows that the middle salary level (median) of each rank in VC / PE institutions are 15000 yuan (Analyst / researcher), 20000 yuan (investment manager), 30000 yuan (investment director) and 50000 yuan (partner and above).

In other words, most investment managers earn 20000 yuan a month, and this salary level is not too low in the industry. They place their dream of realizing wealth and freedom on carry, which is also the most attractive weapon for a group of young people to rush into the VC Circle one after another.

The so-called carry means that when the company invested by the fund withdraws from liquidation, if there is income, 20-25% of this income will be distributed to the fund management company. This part of the money is called carry, and the rest will be owned by LP.

Over the years, there have been rumors about carry. The most sensational was a carnival triggered by a PE with a scale of tens of billions in Beijing in 2017. On New Year’s day that year, the news of “67 people sharing 176 million bonus” shocked the VC / PE Circle, of which 10 won more than 5 million yuan, with a maximum bonus of 31.92 million yuan. After pinduoduo was listed in 2018, the early investor Gaorong capital project team