Top MBA Graduate? VC in China? Not so fast..
Here is a quote coming from a top VC from a top international VC firm.
“Unfortunately my 2 cents sound cold and harsh. But over last 3 years china has changed a lot. There are too many qualified/promising mainland chinese students from top US mba shcools accepting local (or near local) packages to get into vc, pe, banking, consulting.
One data point: of the last 3 years (from class 2003 to class 2007), only 2 hbs mba grads who are white have landed in a preipo startup and vc, and 1 sloan mba grad who is white is doing china related vc work (but from singapore). The 2 hbs guys actually speak chinese, and the sloan guy is learning. That’s it for these 2 schools in china. All 3 told me they haven’t met any other white americans in vc nor pe in china.
As for non mainland chinese (ie hk, taiwan, se asia) pe and vcs, I am aware of only 3 such people from hbs and sloan from class 2003 to 2007 in china. That’s including myself. Altogether the number of such non-mainland chinese vc or pe professionals living in china and working for top 100 vc/pe funds is around 100.
Its much tougher than getting into business school. “
Takeaways:
If you want to do VC in China, you’ve gotta be in tune to the Chinese business environment. A top MBA in the US won’t get that for you. There are thousands of hungry/ambitious local Chinese MBA graduates that are just as sharp. On top of that, they speak the native language and live the culture. Oh, and btw they are also willing to work for about 1/5 of a typical US associate.