Venture Fellows Program Expands to Include Undergraduates

Georgetown McDonough’s Venture Fellows Program, which provides students interested in working in venture capital with a year-long appointment at a local VC firm, now includes undergraduate students.

The Venture Fellows Program started as a collaboration between the MBA program and Georgetown Entrepreneurship. Student fellowships begin during the spring semester, when students work up to 10 hours per week at the firm. During the summer, the fellowship turns into a full-fledged internship, then resumes a part-time schedule during the fall semester.

Though the program formally concludes in December, several firms have asked students to stay on staff until graduation. Some students receive academic credit for their work, and many secure similar full-time venture capital or investment positions after graduation.

“The Venture Fellows Program was originally designed to provide access — beyond a summer internship — to MBA students seeking careers in venture capital,” said Eric Young, assistant dean of the MBA Career Center. “Venture capital firms have a variety of tasks and needs for different skill sets — some at the MBA level and some at the undergraduate level — so for 2020 we decided to expand the offering to our venture capital firms to meet their different needs and to provide undergraduate students the competitive and limited access to work in venture capital.”

The program is highly selective, and this year’s class is the largest ever, with 10 MBA fellows and five undergraduate fellows.

“Through Revolution and the Venture Fellowship, I am most looking forward to making an impact in startup ecosystems that don’t typically get the attention they deserve. Venture capital is a great way to stimulate local economies, and I am excited to learn from the team at Revolution and the founders we work with,” said Estelle Spanneut (B’21).

Former fellows also lauded the program for its networking opportunities.

Christine Steele (MBA’20), a 2019 fellow who is interning at Sands Capital, said, “Being part of the Venture Fellows Program gave me the opportunity to connect with my classmates who were also participating in the program. We shared our experiences at our respective firms and gave each other feedback and advice on how to approach our internships.”

“Thanks to the experience from my fellowship I was able to bring a lot of what I heard learned on the job back to Georgetown,” said 2019 fellow Benjamin Pincus (MBA’20). “What I was most proud of was the cap table modeling training I put together for my peers that taught the basics of VC terminology and deal structure with two interactive case studies. It was rewarding to be able to teach my classmates what I had learned and engage in a great conversation where each of them brought their own professional experiences into the discussion.”

In addition to Spanneut, this year’s fellows include Henry Dai (SFS’22), Francis Coppola (MBA’21), Gabriella Grossman (C’21), Adam Hancock (MBA’21), Gregory Hoffman (MBA’21), Jonathan Huang (B’21), Ayush Jain (MBA’21), Deepika Jonnalagadda (SFS’21), Joshua Miller (MBA’21), Deepak Mishra (MBA’21), Natalie Poston (MBA’21), Arianne Price (MBA’21), James Roper (MBA’21), and Kevin Sullivan (MBA’21).