The VCs and their partners. Venture capital general partners may be former CEOs at firms similar to those which the partnership funds. Investors in venture capital funds are typically large institutions with huge amounts of available capital, such as state and private pension funds, university endowments, insurance companies, and pooled investment vehicles.

Other positions at venture capital firms include venture partners and entrepreneur-in-residence (EIR). Venture partners «bring in deals» and receive income only on deals they work on (as opposed to general partners who receive income on all deals). EIRs are experts in a particular domain and perform due diligence on potential deals. EIRs are engaged by VC firms temporarily (6 to 18 months) and are expected to develop startup ideas to their host firm. Some EIRs move on to roles such as Chief Technology Officer at a portfolio company.

Fixed-lifetime funds. Most venture capital funds have a fixed life of ten years. This model was pioneered by some of the most successful funds in Silicon Valley through the 1980s to invest in technological trends broadly but only during their period of ascendance, and to cut exposure to management and marketing risks of any individual firm or its product.

In such a fund, the investors have a fixed commitment to the fund that is «called down» by the VCs over time as the fund makes its investments. In a typical venture capital fund, the VCs receive an annual management fee equal to 2% of the committed capital to the fund and 20% of the net profits of the fund («two and 20»). Because a fund may run out of capital prior to the end of its life, larger VCs usually have several overlapping funds at the same time. Smaller firms tend to thrive or fail with their initial industry contacts.