A Seat on the Other Side of the Table
McCombs Venture Fellows program offers students real-world experience in exclusive venture capital industry
by Amy E. Lemen << previous |
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The Other Side of the Table
While many of the Venture Fellows are set on becoming venture capitalists, others use the experience to become well acquainted with creating the perfect business plan. That unique view from the other side of the table is extraordinary, especially for those entrepreneurial Venture Fellows that dream of launching their own company.
David Beisner, MBA ’04, was a Venture Fellow during the spring and fall semesters of 2003. Fast-forward three years: These days, he is meeting with local venture capital firms to pitch his own ideas. He says his Venture Fellows experience has proven invaluable in that regard.
“Just by working with the VCs, you get a greater understanding of what they’re looking for in a startup,” he says.
Many students find the experience to be applicable across an array of fields. Wendy Pursch, MBA ’06, started working in marketing at Hoover’s, Inc.—a business research company that provides information on U.S. companies and industries—after graduating this May.
“I like that Venture Fellows has a lot to offer students with different interests,” she says. “The deal-structuring aspect is interesting, but it’s not my passion. My interests are entrepreneurial, and this fits with where I’m taking my career.”
She worked with companies in all stages during her Venture Fellows internships at the Austin Technology Incubator and at G-51, and that mix resulted in a number of job offers.
“I had several different offers, from startups to huge companies, and it was because of my experiences and the opportunities I pursued in the Venture Fellows program,” she says. “It was definitely a great thing to have on my resumé.”
Making Career Decisions
Geoff Dethlefsen, MBA ’06, interned with Sentient Ventures and Triton Ventures while in the program, and says his Venture Fellows experience has been the kind of learning opportunity many students don’t see during business school.
“The venture capital industry is very exciting—and very exclusive,” he says. “There aren’t many open positions, so it’s hard to get experience in it if that’s what you want to do. I was able to work with very sharp people involved in successful startups who know that world very well.”
Dethlefsen, whose background before business school includes four years as a consultant with Accenture’s Strategy Consulting Group, says being in the Venture Fellows program helped him determine whether venture capital was an industry he wanted to be in.
“The skills you gain in a program like this are translatable to any business,” he says. “The ability to evaluate an investment idea or a business plan is valuable in any business position, whether you’re in a marketing, consulting or an investment banking role.”
Dethlefsen says the best part of his internship experience was the Friday morning partner call at Sentient Ventures, where the company would go through that week’s business plans and discuss the merits of each one. “Those calls were great—what I thought was a good idea, they didn’t, and I was able to see the reasons why,” he says. “It gave me a new perspective on what it takes to really evaluate business ideas.”
For his part, Dethlefsen is heading back to consulting with a position at the Boston Consulting Group—which was recently ranked 11th in Fortune magazine’s “100 Best U.S. Companies to Work For” survey. There, he’ll be advising CEOs of companies and solving business problems at a high level.
“I see my Venture Fellows experience as very valuable for strategy consulting,” he says. “There’s a lot of overlap.”
Adding More to the Mix
While the group is small in numbers, as a student-run organization, there are many leadership opportunities for students. For example, Pursch got involved recruiting new students for the program.
As the only woman in her particular Venture Fellows class, Pursch teamed up with the only woman in the class before hers with the goal of recruiting more women to the program. She says women make up about 25 percent of each MBA class, but those numbers get even lower when it comes to Venture Fellows.
“All top MBA schools struggle with that,” she says. “[The fields of] private equity, investment banking and venture capital have always been male-dominated, and I think many women are intimidated by that.”
Pursch says a good class represents a mix of skills; adding more women simply brings more to the table. The 2006-2007 Venture Fellows class has three women in the program.
“There’s a lot we can give back to an organization—we bring a different perspective to the program and to potential employers,” she says. “I think it’s an issue—not just women, but attracting people of all different backgrounds.”
In VC, diversity is key, and that’s what makes it so attractive to today’s business school students. Whereas Wall Street tended to be the Holy Grail of top B-school graduates in the 1980s, the allure of Austin, Silicon Valley and Boston VC firms—analyzing, funding and being invested in the success of another Yahoo! or Google—has undeniable appeal.
While many of the Venture Fellows are set on becoming venture capitalists, others use the experience to become well acquainted with creating the perfect business plan. That unique view from the other side of the table is extraordinary, especially for those entrepreneurial Venture Fellows that dream of launching their own company.
David Beisner, MBA ’04, was a Venture Fellow during the spring and fall semesters of 2003. Fast-forward three years: These days, he is meeting with local venture capital firms to pitch his own ideas. He says his Venture Fellows experience has proven invaluable in that regard.
“Just by working with the VCs, you get a greater understanding of what they’re looking for in a startup,” he says.
Many students find the experience to be applicable across an array of fields. Wendy Pursch, MBA ’06, started working in marketing at Hoover’s, Inc.—a business research company that provides information on U.S. companies and industries—after graduating this May.
“I like that Venture Fellows has a lot to offer students with different interests,” she says. “The deal-structuring aspect is interesting, but it’s not my passion. My interests are entrepreneurial, and this fits with where I’m taking my career.”
She worked with companies in all stages during her Venture Fellows internships at the Austin Technology Incubator and at G-51, and that mix resulted in a number of job offers.
“I had several different offers, from startups to huge companies, and it was because of my experiences and the opportunities I pursued in the Venture Fellows program,” she says. “It was definitely a great thing to have on my resumé.”
Making Career Decisions
Geoff Dethlefsen, MBA ’06, interned with Sentient Ventures and Triton Ventures while in the program, and says his Venture Fellows experience has been the kind of learning opportunity many students don’t see during business school.
“The venture capital industry is very exciting—and very exclusive,” he says. “There aren’t many open positions, so it’s hard to get experience in it if that’s what you want to do. I was able to work with very sharp people involved in successful startups who know that world very well.”
Dethlefsen, whose background before business school includes four years as a consultant with Accenture’s Strategy Consulting Group, says being in the Venture Fellows program helped him determine whether venture capital was an industry he wanted to be in.
“The skills you gain in a program like this are translatable to any business,” he says. “The ability to evaluate an investment idea or a business plan is valuable in any business position, whether you’re in a marketing, consulting or an investment banking role.”
Dethlefsen says the best part of his internship experience was the Friday morning partner call at Sentient Ventures, where the company would go through that week’s business plans and discuss the merits of each one. “Those calls were great—what I thought was a good idea, they didn’t, and I was able to see the reasons why,” he says. “It gave me a new perspective on what it takes to really evaluate business ideas.”
For his part, Dethlefsen is heading back to consulting with a position at the Boston Consulting Group—which was recently ranked 11th in Fortune magazine’s “100 Best U.S. Companies to Work For” survey. There, he’ll be advising CEOs of companies and solving business problems at a high level.
“I see my Venture Fellows experience as very valuable for strategy consulting,” he says. “There’s a lot of overlap.”
Adding More to the Mix
While the group is small in numbers, as a student-run organization, there are many leadership opportunities for students. For example, Pursch got involved recruiting new students for the program.
As the only woman in her particular Venture Fellows class, Pursch teamed up with the only woman in the class before hers with the goal of recruiting more women to the program. She says women make up about 25 percent of each MBA class, but those numbers get even lower when it comes to Venture Fellows.
“All top MBA schools struggle with that,” she says. “[The fields of] private equity, investment banking and venture capital have always been male-dominated, and I think many women are intimidated by that.”
Pursch says a good class represents a mix of skills; adding more women simply brings more to the table. The 2006-2007 Venture Fellows class has three women in the program.
“There’s a lot we can give back to an organization—we bring a different perspective to the program and to potential employers,” she says. “I think it’s an issue—not just women, but attracting people of all different backgrounds.”
In VC, diversity is key, and that’s what makes it so attractive to today’s business school students. Whereas Wall Street tended to be the Holy Grail of top B-school graduates in the 1980s, the allure of Austin, Silicon Valley and Boston VC firms—analyzing, funding and being invested in the success of another Yahoo! or Google—has undeniable appeal.
