Mendoza Ventures is excited to announce our Venture Capital Fellowship Program, a program created to match diverse MBA students with opportunities within the venture capital field.
As summer associates, Venture Fellows will be responsible for performing market research to help identify new investment trends and opportunities, perform due diligence through writing investment memos, and implementing the firm’s ESG policy. Fellows will gain further experience by working one-on-one with a general partner at Mendoza Ventures to get direct experience in VC.
“With very few women and minorities in venture capital, we saw an opportunity to share our experiences to lift up the next generation of diverse VCs,” says general partner Senofer Mendoza. “Our goal is to build a program that can give opportunities to women and people of color and accelerate and launch their careers in venture; only by doing this can we change the face of venture capital.”
The inaugural program will have two fellows in the summer. Patricia Decker from the USC Marshall School of Business; she will be Mendoza Ventures first west coast hire. Boston based Jeremy Soares from Yale School of Management, will represent the east coast fellowship.
“I am thrilled to join Mendoza Ventures as a Summer Associate and to learn from the incredibly talented team. Founders Adrian and Senofer’s industry expertise is vast, and the energy and passion they bring to their work is infectious.” says Patricia Decker, Venture fellow “I am excited and expect to learn how to help early-stage founders advance their businesses in revolutionary industries such as FinTech, cybersecurity and AI. I just completed my first day of the fellowship and can’t wait to work alongside the team this summer.”
“I’m really hoping to supplement my studies at business school by seeing Mendoza’s hands-on approach in action, as they partner with diverse founders to build early stage startups and offer solutions in the AI and fintech space. At the end of my time, I’ll present a capstone of my experience to my faculty advisor at school.” says Jeremy Soares venture fellow.
With a 75% diverse portfolio, Mendoza Ventures shows that diversity brings increased returns, while providing opportunities for inclusion. The Venture Fellowship Program is part of the proactive change needed in the venture capital industry. We will start accepting applications for the fall fellowship in the next month.
