My time as a Sturgeon intern - Part III

A week in the life of an intern

My name is Dillon Roberts, and I am a recent graduate from the University of Bath holding a degree in Politics with Economics. In this final instalment of a three-part series, I will offer insights for those aspiring to join the Sturgeon Capital 2024 Summer Internship program or anyone intrigued by a career in VC. You can read the first and second parts here and here.

While my second post focused on the primary tasks and projects I was given during the internship programme, this post will focus on the meetings, events and tasks that make up an average week in my life during the summer internship programme.

1.     Bi-weekly Investment Committee Meetings

These meetings are the heart of investment discussions. As an intern at Sturgeon, I had the privilege of actively participating from the get-go. Initially, I listened and absorbed insights into how these meetings functioned. By the end of the internship, I found myself leading discussions on potential investments and presenting my own analyses to the IC team. These calls can be daunting but bear in mind that people questioning your analysis is not criticism for the sake of criticism, it contributes to the firm making better decisions and should not be taken as a personal affront.

2.     Portfolio Company Update Meetings

Monthly update meetings with portfolio companies unveiled the inner workings of their strategies and key performance indicators, shedding light on what informs investment decisions. For VCs, these meetings serve as a platform for reviewing performance and to give founders informed advice on complex decisions they may face. These meetings also highlight what VCs are concerned about, and by listening to the questions other people ask on the call, you can use their questions when presented with a similar company when analysing your VC’s deal flow.

3.     Weekly Intern Catchups

Every Friday at 3 pm, Kiyan Zandiyeh, Sturgeon's CIO, dedicated an hour to answering our questions. His openness was unwavering, covering topics ranging from portfolio construction to personal life lessons. It is rare for interns and analysts to get facetime with the senior stakeholders of a business, so the fact that Kiyan took the time out of his day to speak with us was valuable.

Not only did we get answers to our questions, but it also gave Kiyan the platform to explain his vision for where Sturgeon Capital is going and where new starters fit into that journey. There is no better place to hear the 5-, 10-, or 20-year plan of a company than from the founders who are building it, and the same notion applies to growing VC firms like Sturgeon Capital.

4.     Founder Catchups

Sturgeon frequently engaged with non-portfolio startups to track the competitive landscape of the firm’s target geographies. These meetings are about nurturing relationships with competent founders who Sturgeon may look to work with in the future. These meetings would often take place over Teams or in the ‘Frequency’ coffee shop near Sturgeon’s office and would involve a founder giving Sturgeon updates on key wins, setbacks faced and goals for the next 6-12 months. Sturgeon recognised the value of developing deep relationships with founders, even prior to any investments being discussed. Because of this, it was common for the Sturgeon team to offer advice or help to any founder the team thought could benefit from our knowledge or contacts.

5.     Monthly PR/Comms Discussion

Sturgeon hosts a monthly meeting in which team members can pitch content ideas for Sturgeon’s blog, Terra Incognita. The team try and produce a new piece of content every other week with the aim of blog being the go-to source for anyone seeking insights into emerging and frontier markets investment. Sturgeon Capital's blog is a rich source of knowledge drawn from the team's 17 years of operations in Central and South Asia. These blog posts provide valuable insights into the team's current perspectives on various aspects of the venture capital world. Trying to generate content ideas that could bring more people into the wider Sturgeon network was the main reason for this series of blog posts in the first place.

6.     Tegus Calls for Due Diligence

When expertise outside Sturgeon's network was required for due diligence, we turned to Tegus. They facilitated calls with experts, streamlining due diligence and providing unbiased views and insights into startups and the sectors they operate in. This was particularly valuable when we investigated sectors where in-house expertise was limited. The expert calls are only as useful as the questions you ask, and hence the whole team would often contribute to developing a question list, so the most value could be extracted from the expert during the interview.

7.     Networking Events

As outlined in my first blog post, your firm needs a reputation as a top decile investor and partner to access the best deal flow. Part of building this reputation is attending networking events. The wider team at Sturgeon understood that as an intern, you have little to no professional network to bring to the table. I was surprised at how accommodating the team were with giving opportunities for Zhen and me to expand our personal networks. Over the course of my internship, there were three types of networking event I attended:

A.    Coffee Meetings with GPs

The most common opportunity to network during the internship was coffee meetings. One coffee chat that stands out was with the GP of a prominent Family Office with ties to Formula 1. Interns were invited along to listen to what the GP had to say, as well as ask any questions we might have about operating a family office, the wider investing and fundraising environment surrounding private markets, and the career of the GP so far.

B.    Monthly Drinks Events

The monthly drinks events were excellent for networking and connecting with various professionals in the field. Sturgeon hosted an 'emerging London drinks' event, where investors from emerging markets VCs could meet up and network. These events were great for interns as you could work the room and speak to as many new people as possible. For more introverted readers, one must remember that the level of confidence required to conversate with strangers at networking events is higher than even the most extroverted reader’s threshold, so do not be put off if the idea of networking seems daunting. No one will judge you for asking questions; everyone is there to learn and meet new people.

C.    Investor Conferences

The previous two examples have covered investor-investor networking, but there were also events that presented an opportunity to network with up-and-coming startups from Sturgeon’s target geographies. One such event I was lucky enough to attend was Paklaunch London, an event dedicated to bringing the best startups in Pakistan together with potential investors. I spoke to representatives of other VCs, many of whom focused on different rounds of funding to Sturgeon and offered a different view on the VC market in Pakistan. I was also lucky enough to speak with some of the leading startup founders about their successes, and to other founders looking to emulate their successes. Events like Paklaunch London are not only beneficial for growing a personal network, but also to generate deal flow.

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This post concludes a three-part series I have written to provide interested parties with information about the Sturgeon Capital summer internship, and to inform anyone interested in pursuing a career in VC about what is required, what you can expect, and how you can better prepare yourself for a role.

If you would like to find out more about me, you can do so by connecting with me on LinkedIn. If you would like to learn more about Sturgeon Capital, you can check out their website here.