Partners have two jobs at firms: raise money from LPs and convince great founders to take the firm’s money. If you were hiring a partner you would choose to go

Partners have two jobs at firms: raise money from LPs and convince great founders to take the firm’s money. If you were hiring a partner you would choose to go in this order: poaching a star partner from another firm, hiring a star founder/operator, an all-star associate at a more successful firm, promoting your own associate. Any of the first three options will help sell LPs and founders on your new fund by bringing along some brand name credibility. It’s a harder sell when you are promoting from within, especially as associates do not have experience raising money from LPs. Another reason: Venture firm partnerships are inherently political environments and perception matters. It is akin to why grad students are discouraged from becoming professors at the same school they got their PhD from. It’s hard to escape from the shadow of your mentor and find your own footing. There a few other reasons that promotions are rare, but they do happen. A16Z used to have a rule where no one internally would be promoted to be a GP because they only wanted to have former operators be partners (they have now since changed that policy https://a16z.com/2018/07/17/connie-chan/ https://a16z.com/2018/07/17/connie-chan/)