Why General Catalyst: Interviews, Careers, & Portfolio

General Catalyst Overview

General Catalyst is a venture capital firm founded by Joel Cutler, David Orfao, DAvid Fialkow, and Bill Fitzgerald.

They are a multistage investor and support businesses from seed stage all the way through growth.

General Catalyst typically invests in the field of fintech, health assurance, consumer, enterprise software, cryptocurrency, transportation, big data, and anything tech-driven.

The firm positions themselves as the “founder’s first call” and provides connections and guidance to their partners.

The firm is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with additional offices in Berlin, London, NYC, Palo Alto, and San Francisco.

General Catalyst AUM

According to the latest regulatory filings, General Catalyst has $24.8 BB in assets under management as of March 30, 2023.

General Catalyst Interview Process & Questions

Despite the changes in the interview changes for each candidate, the general nature of the process stays the same for the most part. In fact, you can anticipate the following:

• Interview rounds: 4-6
• Initial interviews are supervised by junior professionals, while later rounds are handled by more senior folks
• Unless it’s on-campus or on-cycle recruiting, expect that the entire process will last for multiple weeks

Get ready to answer a mixture of behavioral questions, technical questions, and fit questions when you interview at General Catalyst.

To help you with preparation, I’ve created a Growth Equity Interview Guide. Feel free to check it out.

Why General Catalyst

One of the questions you must prepare for is the “Why this firm” question.

If you’ve met employees at the firm during your networking efforts, make sure to mention them and how their experiences and testimonies helped in choosing their firm.

Also, do your homework and research the firm. You can try listening to interviews with its founders, management team, and investors to get to know them better.

For example, here’s an interview with Hemant Taneja, General Catalyst CEO:

More Interviews

• Discussion with John Kim, Managing Director at General Catalyst
• Andrea Wang’s presentation at Meet Our Fund 5

General Catalyst Case Study

Communication skills and technical knowledge are two traits that investment firms highly value. To evaluate these, firms like General Catalyst ask candidates to perform case studies.

Most case studies will have you do financial modeling and investment recommendations. But for junior roles, a cold calling case study may also be part of the process.

Check out my Growth Equity Interview Guide if you need more help regarding case studies.

General Catalyst Salary & Compensation

According to Glassdoor, General Catalyst offers annual salaries of $156K on average to their analysts and $170K to their associates. Figures may vary depending on various factors such as location, experience, and education.

Analyst

Associate

General Catalyst Careers, Jobs, & Internships

To see the most recent open roles at General Catalyst, visit our job board which features promising opportunities for them and other growth / VC firms.

General Catalyst Portfolio & Investments

According to Crunchbase, General Catalyst has made 1,275 investments across 15 funds. Some of their notable deals include Factorial, Andesite AI, and Alsym Energy.

Notable Transaction: Collaborative Robotics

Collaborative Robotics (Cobot) provides robotic solutions that are more affordable compared to complex humanoid robots.

Their machines can work alongside humans to help them improve productivity and lower operational costs.

Cobot’s vision is to produce trustworthy cobots that can seamlessly integrate into all areas of manufacturing, healthcare, logistics, and more.

In April 2024, Collaborative Robotics raised $100 MM from a Series B funding round led by General Catalyst with participation from Lux Capital, Industry Ventures, and Bison Ventures.

The investment helps Cobot to employ top talents and accelerate their commercial deployment.

Next Steps

If you decide to send your application and build your investing career at General Catalyst, I would highly recommend that you check out my Growth Equity Interview Guide first before attending interviews.

Growth Equity Interview Guide helps professionals get a good grasp of topics that are typically covered during interviews such as financial modeling, case studies, and more. Check it out and start learning today!