I broke into venture capital at 22 and became a partner by 28. I learned one easy, surefire way to move up the ranks.

A partner at a venture capital firm shares how she broke into the industry at a young age without a career in finance.

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This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Olivia Gaudree, a 28-year-old partner and VP of Operations at Fuel Venture Capital. Business Insider has verified her employment. The following has been edited for length and clarity. I grew up in an entrepreneurial family. My parents work at a family catering restaurant they’ve run for 30 years. They started a few businesses when I was a child and openly discussed the ups and downs of their businesses’ operations. I knew I wanted to do something in business. I thought internships would help me figure out what. I got an internship at a local hedge fund in highschool. I worked there for two summers and one school year. I attended Florida State University and majored in finance. In 2017, my junior year of college, I had a summer financial internship at Thomson Reuters in New York. Those were formative summers for me. Through my exposure as an intern, I learned I liked working with a smaller team, where I had a lot of responsibilities and more creativity, versus a bigger investment house where everyone stays in their lane. I noticed there are ways to move up the corporate ladder at a bigger firm, but maybe not as quickly as at a younger, smaller firm. At my high school hedge fund internship, I met Maggie Vo, now the managing general partner at Fuel Venture Capital, and got to know her well. I made a point of maintaining the relationship at college. I updated her on my progress and asked about hers. Maggie saw that I was willing to learn quickly and had the work ethic to contribute to the firm. She offered me an internship right after I graduated from college. Connecting with people in venture capital and maintaining those connections is imperative for young people. When you don’t have quantitative metrics to prove your worth, industry connections can help. Reaching out meaningfully, even once a quarter, makes relationships warmer. At the time, I was considering opportunities in investment banking and financial service firms and was fielding full time offers. I chose Fuel because I would work with the investment side and directly with the founders. You don’t often get exposure to both sides in a larger firm. When I joined Fuel in 2018, it was a small team of managers with one fund. I could work directly with senior leadership and access all the different parts of the business. It was also a rare opportunity to get into VC early. The typical path into VC starts with working a few years in investment banking, then a few years in a small private equity firm, and then you get a chance at VC. It can take 10 years. The alternative is to get an internship early, prove yourself, and work your way up. These days, there are more early opportunities. Some firms offer entry-level positions within the investment team, but they aren’t common. Firms usually want to see that background before coming into VC. Fuel offered me a full time role three months after I started as an intern at 22. I then worked my way up through several more analyst roles. In the early days, I worked alongside Maggie on the investments team. I tried to absorb as much information as possible from meetings. I was working on decks, putting together due diligence packages on potential portfolio companies, and working on internal processes. I had to work harder since I didn’t come to VC from the traditional investment banking path. For the first two years, I immersed myself in the industry, reading as much as possible and listening to industry podcasts. Now, I’ve done everything from refilling the printer to facilitating successful exits. You need to make yourself indispensable and understand every aspect of the business to thrive. Learning how to communicate effectively with everyone — founders, investors, and colleagues — was especially crucial. One easy, surefire way to move up the ranks is to know what your boss wants and, if possible, meet them there. When I first started as an intern, I also worked directly with Jeff Randsell, Fuel’s founding partner. I noticed that he’d spent 25 years working his way up at Merrill Lynch. Because he’d been exposed to that cutthroat environment, I always made sure to be the last person to leave the office. He didn’t say this was an expectation, but I hoped he’d recognize my hard work. I think it ultimately contributed to my getting a full time position at Fuel. An opportunity to move on to operations arose in 2022. I never saw myself in operations because I thought it was a paperwork, back-office role. But it felt like a natural progression in my career, and I still got to work with founders and investors — now I’d understand even more about the business. Coming into the operations side, I had a good macro view of the firm I’d built up in my first four years. In this role, I work with third-party partners, run the audit process, and work directly with the tax and legal teams. I’m also involved in the investment side but with compliance. I even learned how to form a fund from the bottom up. I was promoted to partner,which was very important. With most jobs in finance including VC, there are fewer women at the table. You have to prove yourself and overcome implicit bias when you’re a woman or a minority. I account for this by putting in 110% effort and a lot more planning and preparation to ensure I’m viewed as equal to everyone around me. Switching gears and interacting with a stressed founder and then a member of the tax team has been valuable to my career progress. The women I work with are very good at balancing many different things simultaneously. They are also observant and ask hard questions. These skills were especially useful in 2021 when founders went from capital exuberance to more scarcity. Everyone found this challenging. It’s an 80 to 100-hour workweek industry. You have to enjoy the work. If not, it will be miserable. VC has turned out to be a great fit for me, and it’s a career path I’m fully committed to. My entire journey has been so fulfilling with Fuel. I’ve seen founders’ growth trajectories and how that’s positively impacted all the people they employ and the generational wealth they’re creating for their own families. While numbers heavily drive VC, it’s also about gut instinct, relationships, and networking. You have to have intuition and move on it. It’s not about waiting for direction. While you learn along the way, curiosity, and emotional intelligence are essential at the entry level. Advertisement POPULAR CATEGORIES

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