Why Bessemer Venture Partners: Interviews, Careers, & Portfolio

Bessemer Venture Partners Overview

Founded in 1911, Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) is a venture capital firm which primarily invests in consumer, enterprise, and healthcare from early days through every stage of growth.

BVP’s impressive portfolio has included Shopify, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Yelp, Wix, Fiverr, and Toast.

The firm was born after Henry Phipps Jr., a co-founder of Carnegie Steel,created the Bessemer Trust in NY to manage the assets of his family.

Right after, he formed Bessemer Securities as a separate entity with $20M AUM which was invested in publicly traded securities, venture capital deals, and real estate.

In 2000, BVP started investing outside the U.S. particularly in Latin America, Europe, Israel, and India.

At that time, BVP created “Anti-Portfolio” which showcases the companies and opportunities they had missed. The list includes Coinbase, Apple, eBay, and AirBnb.

Currently, BVP is located in San Francisco, California with over a thousand of accumulated investments.

Bessemer Venture Partners AUM

Bessemer Venture Partners has $37.6 billion in assets under management as of March 28, 2023 according to the most recent regulatory filings.

Bessemer Venture Partners Interview Process & Questions

Firms tend to make modifications on their interview process with each candidate. However, if you interview at Bessemer Venture Partners (or a firm like it), the general nature of the process remains consistent:

• There will be 4-6 rounds of interviews
• For the initial rounds, the HR team or the junior investment professionals supervise the interview, while the more senior staff lead the later rounds.
• The entire process could take several weeks unless it’s “on-cycle” or “on-campus” recruiting

The interview at Bessemer Venture Partners will be a combination of fit questions, technical / investing questions, and behavioral questions.

For interview preparation resources, check out my Growth Equity Interview Guide.

Why Bessemer Venture Partners

Firms often want to know the reason for the candidate’s application. That’s why you are almost always going to encounter the crucial question: “Why this firm?”

If you’ve done networking and met amazing people from the firm, this is your best opportunity to mention whoever you’ve made connections with and how they left a really positive impression on you.

Another thing you can do before going into interviews is to do some research about the firm. For this, I highly recommend listening to interviews with its founders, investors, and management team.

To start, here’s an interview with Jeremy Levine, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP):

More interviews

• Talia Goldberg, partner in Bessemer’s San Francisco office, on Generative AI
• Bessemer Venture’s Kent Bennett on Software Firms
• Partner Andrew Hedin and CEO Michael Nally recount advancements in biotechnology

Bessemer Venture Partners Case Study

VC case studies are one of the ways firms like Bessemer Venture Partners assess the candidate’s technical knowledge and communication skills. There’s a high chance you’ll perform this exercise during interviews so it’s best to prepare in advance.

Most case studies at investment firms revolve around financial modeling and investment recommendations. However, junior roles may also be required to do a cold calling case study.

Check out Growth Equity Interview Guide for comprehensive lessons on case studies.

Bessemer Venture Partners Salary & Compensation

As per Glassdoor’s data, Analysts at Bessemer Venture Partners can earn an estimated annual pay of $108,518 while Associates can make $107,277 per year. These figures represent the median and can still vary depending on several factors such as education, experience, and skill level.

Analyst

Associate

Bessemer Venture Partners Careers, Jobs, & Internships

To check what roles are currently open at Bessemer Venture Partners, check out our job board where we also feature amazing opportunities from similar firms.

Bessemer Venture Partners Portfolio & Investments

According to Crunchbase, Bessemer Venture Partners has made 1,339 investments across 13 funds since its founding. Some of their notable deals include Shopify, Yelp, LinkedIn, DocuSign, Wix, Fiverr, and Toast.

Notable Transaction: Pinterest

Pinterest is a social e-commerce website which allows users to discover products, curate catalogs, and publish creations.

In 2011, Bessemer Venture Partners led a $10 million Series A investment at a $40 million pre-money valuation, which includes a 13% post-money option pool.

Pinterest previously raised almost $2 million in seed capital from Highline Ventures and FirstMark Capital.

Post-closing, BVP may initiate a buy-back of shares from early, non-employee investors. This buy-back will have a 25% discount to the Series A price and may have an option to buy up to $2 million of additional shares to increase ownership.

For full details, read BVP’s memo regarding Pinterest IR.

Next Steps

Want to be part of Bessemer Venture Partners? Then expect a lot of competitors for the role you’re aiming for.

If you want to stand out and increase your chances of getting selected for the position, I highly recommend you check out our self-paced online course Growth Equity Interview Guide. 

This comprehensive course will help you get a good grasp of the topics and exercises that candidates often go through during interviews such as case studies, market thesis, valuation, financial modeling, and many more.

Get the course and start learning today.