GSB Venture Fellowship

The most rewarding three weeks in venture

Every summer, in the few weeks between internships and fall classes, I bring three Stanford GSB MBA1s into the fund for three weeks. They work alongside me on real deals: sourcing founders, evaluating opportunities, and learning what it takes to win competitive rounds while meeting the founders, GPs, and LPs who make up the venture ecosystem.

Fellowship Summary

What The Fellowship Is

The fellowship grew out of a habit. While I was a partner at Bain Capital Ventures, I sponsored a GSB intern most summers. In 2023, I turned it into a dedicated three week program with a name, a syllabus, and real capital behind it.

Each cohort works through the four things that define great venture investing. They source founders in the fund's focus areas (AI native vertical SaaS, fintech, future of work, and developer tools), run real diligence on live deals, make the case for the investments they believe in, and learn directly from GPs and founders how competitive rounds actually get won. Each fellow also gets $50K of the fund to invest during their MBA2 year, with full deal attribution and carry.

What Makes This Different

Small By Design

Most venture internships are a few Zoom calls, some deal screening in a spreadsheet, and not much mentorship. My fellows meet more GPs and LPs in three weeks than most junior investors meet in a year, and they meet them in person, at the firm's own office, not on a panel. They also source and evaluate deals with real fund capital and real carry on the line, not a mock portfolio.

I keep the cohort small on purpose: three people a year, chosen from a competitive pool, so I can actually get to know each fellow instead of running a program. That doesn't end after three weeks. Alumni come back for a reunion dinner with each new cohort, we stay in touch over WhatsApp, and they're always welcome back in Menlo Park. As they go on to start companies or join firms of their own, that relationship keeps paying off both ways, in deal flow and in referrals.

I've done every part of this job myself: built products as an operator at Facebook and Quora, invested institutionally at Bain Capital Ventures and Graph Ventures, run my own fund as a solo GP, and taught venture at Stanford (ENGR 245: Lean Launchpad). The fellowship comes from all four of those vantage points, not just one.

Application Process

When To Apply

Applications open each winter quarter, typically alongside an info session, and are due in March. The fellowship is only open to GSB students before their second year. Feel free to reach out for more information in January of your first year.