How to Master Your VC Lab Application

Watch the full session: Mastering Your Cohort 20 Application

Every cohort, VC Lab receives roughly 3,000 applications. About 300 get accepted into the program. And by the end, maybe a third of those finish because you have to hit real milestones along the way.

Those are tough odds. But here's the good news: most applications make the same avoidable mistakes.

"We actually give you a little guide even in the application," says Mike Suprovici, Head of Acceleration at Decile Group. "Fit it in this, put it in these brackets. And then sometimes we get people putting in a dissertation with two paragraphs of the thesis. That's not a thesis. It's a one sentence thing."

Understanding what the admissions team actually looks for can dramatically improve your chances.

Before diving into application tips, let's be clear about what you're applying for.

VC Lab is not a learning program. It's an accelerator designed to help you close a fund. The entire four month program is structured around one goal: getting money in the bank so you can start investing in startups.

"This is not a classroom where you get to learn about how venture capital works," Suprovici explains. "You're going to go out and basically raise a fund. We basically learn by doing."

The average person going through VC Lab raises money two to three times faster than people outside the program. But that speed comes from focus and execution, not lectures.

If you want to learn about venture capital first, VC Lab has a separate program called Venture Institute for that. VC Lab itself is for people ready to launch.

This is the big one. When you're raising a fund, you are the product. You're a professional money manager asking people to trust you with their money for the next 10 to 15 years.

"We want to see what it is about you personally that makes you uniquely qualified to succeed," Suprovici says. "Bring that out in your thesis. What is it about you that allows you to overachieve?"

This isn't about being impressive on paper. It's about having a clear, differentiated reason why you specifically should be running this specific fund.

Venture capital is a network business. You need deal flow. You need to raise money. Both require relationships.

"The vast majority of the investors that are going to be coming into this fund, especially fund one, are going to be people that you know," Suprovici explains. "It's very unlikely that random individuals that don't know you are going to say, 'Hey, I'm going to back this person that's never done this before, even though I don't know them personally.'"

The admissions team looks at your LinkedIn network. They check how big it is. They look at who's in it. They want to make sure you have what you need to succeed.

Here's where many applicants get it wrong. Track record doesn't just mean investment experience.

"People think track record means I've invested in X number of companies," Suprovici says. "It's not just that. It could be that you've helped a whole bunch of companies be very successful. You've helped companies raise money. You've helped companies get their first customers."

The key is that your track record needs to be on thesis. If your background is in healthcare and you're trying to raise a crypto fund, that disconnect will hurt you. Your experience needs to align with what you're claiming you'll be great at.

VC Lab expects you to dedicate at least 20 hours a week to building your fund. And that's not homework for the program. That's actual fundraising work: setting up meetings, pitching investors, following up.

"This is an intense experience and you're going to come out of it with a fund," Suprovici says. "This is not a learning program. We do need to make sure that you're ready for this."

You don't need to have everything figured out before you apply. But you do need to be serious about executing.

Every person accepted into VC Lab is required to publicly share their support of the Mensarius Oath on LinkedIn. This isn't optional.

"We think it's important for the next generation of venture capitalists to have a very strong ethical bearing," Suprovici explains. "There's a lot of unethical behavior that happens in this industry. We want to fix that. We only want to work with people that are ultra ethical."

This public commitment matters more than checking a box on an application. It signals that you're genuinely aligned with building venture capital the right way.

The admissions team reviews thousands of applications. When they see a wall of text instead of a clear, focused thesis, it signals that you haven't done the work to distill your thinking.

"The next application is this nice one sentence thesis that shows exactly that this person's the right person to go after this opportunity," Suprovici says. "Of course that person is probably going to have an easier time."

Use the pre-curriculum materials. Follow the format provided. Get to the essence of why you're going to succeed.

If you're claiming expertise in one area but your entire career is in another, that's a red flag. Limited partners will notice. So will the admissions team.

Some applicants come in expecting VC Lab to introduce them to investors. That's not how this works.

"No program is going to be able to introduce you to investors," Suprovici says. "Think about what you're doing. You have this very specialized thesis. You're a very specialized human being. And then you have to find the right human being that's going to want to invest in that thesis and in this person. It's like finding a needle in a haystack."

Your first close will come from your own network. Full stop.

The process moves fast. Apply, interview, get a decision. Right now, VC Lab is turning around decisions in roughly 24 hours.

If you have a co-GP, have them submit a separate application with the same fund name. The system will link them together. This is actually important because the program stress tests partnerships before you commit to managing money together for 15 years.

"Unlike a startup where co-founders can break up and it's manageable, with funds it's not okay," Suprovici explains. "You have a fiduciary responsibility to be managing people's money for the next 10 to 15 years. If you break up, that's really bad."

Once you're in, the program has real checkpoints. At the thesis review (about four weeks in), you need at least $100,000 in signed letters of intent from limited partners.

That number goes up as the program continues. By the final commitments review, you should have between $500K and $1 million lined up to do a close.

"If LPs are not willing to sign a letter of intent that they're willing to invest in a fund, then maybe the thesis isn't working and you need to fix that," Suprovici says.

These milestones exist because they mirror real fundraising. If you can't get commitments, the thesis needs work.

If you're thinking you need more time to prepare, Suprovici pushes back on that.

"You could be spending 6 to 12 months getting your stuff together and most of that is just a waste of time. Because if you don't have limited partners that want to invest in your fund, none of this matters."

The program is designed to stress test your thesis with real LPs quickly. That feedback is more valuable than months of preparation in isolation.

"If you can't keep up, you just drop out and come back when you're ready. But I would just go for it. Otherwise we see so many people spending lots and lots of time and then just waste a lot of time and don't make it happen."

VC Lab accepts about 10% of applicants. The ones who get in share common traits: a clear thesis, a strong network, relevant experience, genuine commitment, and ethical alignment.

Don't overthink the application. Don't write a dissertation. Follow the format, be specific about why you're uniquely qualified, and apply.

Cohort 19 alone is launching roughly 50 VCs. Each of them will back around 25 companies. That's the kind of impact that's possible when you stop preparing and start doing.