venture.university Reviews 

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The opportunity to conduct due diligence across different stages has been very valuable. For someone who is proactive, curious, and open to being challenged, VU provides an excellent platform to build a career in VC.

I'm a scientist by training with zero experience in investments and I was curious to learn about investment process. I should thank Jenna to provide me this opportunity to be part of this program. Sky has a very easy conversational style to share investment experiences. Andrew simply teaches concepts in deal flow meetings. Both of them critically analyze the company profile. And Aakash is always available to answer your questions. The good thing is that as a cohort, you are part of a supportive team with diverse backgrounds, which helps with analyzing the company better with different perspectives. Not only that, you also get to network in the space. Basically, you can enjoy the learning experience fully.

Excellent, comprehensive, invigorating, joyful, authentic, valuable. These are words that come to mind to describe my experience with Venture University. I write reviews when something is exceptional or on the complete opposite end. If you are able to participate in VU, go for it!

Participation has offered learning and insight that will be hard to garner any other way. Networking, connecting and participating in active outreach, deal flow, due diligence, investor committee, syndicate and much more.

The culture is conducive to learning, collaborating, diversity, team work and independence. Sky Fernandes, Andrew Zalasin, Jenna Fernandes, Aakash Jain - a superb team. You’ll have a chance to gain insight from others and contribute in a tangible way yourself. I highly recommend this opportunity and encourage you to apply without hesitation. -Toni

Venture University is an amazing opportunity to kick-start your venture capital career. It provides great, hands-on experience in all parts of VC, from deal sourcing and due diligence to finally investing in a company. I learned the mechanics of VC while collaborating with an exceptional group of people with diverse backgrounds in healthcare, aerospace, and logistics. This was all under the guidance of successful, experienced general partners who have exited companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Palantir.
It is also an incredible networking opportunity. You get to create lasting relationships with current and future VC investors, which is a huge help if you want to start your own syndicate or venture fund down the line. Overall, this was the ultimate learning experience in venture capital, delivered by the practitioners who shaped how we work and live. I strongly recommend the course to everyone who wants to learn how real VC functions, the Silicon Valley way, and to raise the bar of their investment decisions.

I thought this experience was great! It taught me a lot about venture capital, especially as an undergrad. I learned how to evaluate startups, think through investment decisions, and gained exposure to the VC industry that I wouldn’t have gotten in a classroom. Overall, it was a really valuable experience and made me even more interested in the field.

Up to this point, those eager to enter the venture capital world had two mutually exclusive options: enter an academic institution to learn the theory, or find an apprenticeship opportunity to learn by doing. Venture University has put an end to this binary option: you learn the theory in an optimum way, while gaining hands-on experience working with esteemed practitioners who have ultra-successful track record investing in startups.

Cherry on the cake? Unlimited networking opportunity on a global scale.

You will do yourself a big service joining this program!

I participated in Venture University’s Venture Capital Investor Accelerator, where I gained hands-on experience in deal sourcing, market research, and investment evaluation across early-stage startups. I worked with the investment team to review companies, conduct due diligence, and analyze market opportunities. I also participated in weekly partner meetings to discuss potential investments and contributed insights on promising opportunities. This experience strengthened my ability to think strategically and evaluate startups from an investor’s perspective.

The program is well structured and accessible from diverse backgrounds. It offers the great opportunity to develop first hand experience in real-world deals across verticals. It is a great opportunity to learn investment rigor, well structured due diligence all the way up to closing deals. It changes the way you evaluate opportunities beyond companies and business.

The experience that J. Skyler Fernandes and Andrew Zalasin share is invaluable.
If you put in the work, you are set up for success.

The Venture University program is a worthy educational investment for those who are interested in private investing or simply knowing more about the venture capitalist landscape. There are both academic studies as well as real world practice in doing real deal sourcing and company due diligence. Would highly recommend for those interested to explore this industry further.

My experience at VU Venture Partners was incredibly valuable. The program is thoughtfully designed, offering a perfect blend of learning and hands-on experience. I particularly appreciated the insights from Skyler and Andrew, who generously shared their own investment experiences and perspectives, providing priceless knowledge. As an investor in the program, I enjoyed actively participating in deal sourcing and presenting to partners, which gave me real-world experience in venture capital. I highly recommend this program to anyone looking to enter the VC world. It’s an excellent opportunity to gain practical skills, expand your network, and learn from some of the best in the industry

This program is superb! I enjoyed interacting with the partners at VU, as well as the members of the cohort. digging into hundreds of deals, interface with founders from around the world, navigating multiple industry sectors, andhaving exposure to a variety of business models is priceless! I want more of this!

Venture University realizes the untapped talent that is looked passed for so many reasons. VU understands that everyone does not come from the"right pedigree". VU had given me the opportunity I've been looking for all my professional life. Thank you.

I was a member of Venture University’s 35th cohort in the Fall of 2023 and it was such an awesome experience!

At the very start of the program one of the partners told us that ‘you get out what you put in’ and that couldn’t be truer.

It’s intense and you learn A LOT very quickly, but it’s very structured which makes it easier and allowed me to plan around my consulting work.

After our initial Masterclass week, we met with multiple startups and got to listen in on how the partners at VU approached the calls with founders. Each had a different style that complimented the others very well and it was really interesting to learn from them all.

We were then ‘off to the races’ so to speak, deal sourcing and doing diligence on startups ourselves and I really enjoyed this because the cohort members began to naturally work together even more at this stage. Including each other on calls, sharing experiences and insight etc. I really got to know the other team members well during this stage and I hope to continue those relationships for a long time to come!

The cohort was divided into five teams: Healthcare, Proptech/Fintech. Enterprise, Consumer & Frontier and each week the teams would present their best deals at partner meetings. Needless to say, we had to come into those partner meetings very well prepared and we never had all the answers but even though the questions were tough, honest, and to the point, all of the feedback that was given was constructive and as the weeks went on we all got better at fine tuning our sourcing and due diligence skills.

By the end of the program I felt our cohort had become a tight knit group and we had the investment committees and an amazing trip to Nappa Valley to celebrate!

One final observation. As you go through the program it becomes really clear that the Partners and the entire VU team just really loves venture capital and are building something great to give back to the community.

I’m really glad that I joined the team and am a VU alum, highly recommend!

It is an amazing experience learning concepts, pitching companies at the partner's meeting, doing due diligence, getting tips on looking at different aspects of the deals, then taking the deal to the Investment Committee, and then if it goes through, do the Syndicate call and Reverse Demo Day. This is not very easy to do even by big name Universities. Invaluable experience! Also, we need to remember that we can make the best out of this program by completely immersing yourself in this. I enjoyed my time thoroughly. Sky, Andrew, Jenna, Aakash, and Arpan were all amazing in helping us with different aspects in their own way. I highly recommend this program which gives you all you need to confidently transition into a VC/PE career, provided that it is dependent on you if you can handle all the work and transition from apprentice to a VC career path in 3 months or a year. Nevertheless, every bit of your time is going to be fruitful with this program.

In Sep 2021, I did something unprecedented and decided to take a leap of faith and leave my cushy corp fin job in private equity because I realized I wasn't passionate about FP&A. I had no idea what would come next - I just knew I was intellectually curious about the deals I witnessed while in PE. Two days later, as if by fate, VU popped up on my LinkedIn, and the description/purpose of the program seemed to speak to my exact situation at that time. I knew I wanted to be an investor in private companies, but I didn't know much about VC. VU immersed me into the full-time role of a VC Associate, and I gained real day-to-day experience sourcing, evaluating, and pitching deals. I've never enjoyed "work" so much in my entire life. This program changed my life, literally, in that I found my intersection of "career" and "passion" at VU. The experience you gain is high-quality, and the feedback and coaching you get from Sky, Andrew, and Aakash is unparalleled with anything else out there. I never knew I could wake up everyday excited to get back to it. Thanks to the entire team for introducing me to the VC industry I'll happily spend the rest of my career in.

VU was a very quick decision for me and it is by far among the best I've made! Coming from startups as a founder and operator, VU opened up a new perspective for me - almost like taking a new seat around the same table but getting a clearer view.

A year later after graduation, I've accelerated my career greatly now working with founders that seek support in fundraise. The knowledge, skills and network gained from the experience are benefiting not only me but to dozens of founder in developing nations.

The best program/internship I have taken thus far. Was a great learning curve to learn from the top industry experts about Venture Capital. Special kudos to Andrew, Skyler, Aakash, and the whole cohort for making this an amazing experience professionally and personally over the last three months. Greatest value add to my career trajectory by a mile.

I just finished my first cohort and am trying to plan when I can do my next one. I was able to work with and learn from some amazing people. It was an incredible experience and opportunity.

I loved, loved, loved the Venture University experience. The program surpassed all my expectations.

I started my full-time startup and venture journey in March 2021 and spent every week of the last year talking to entrepreneurs/founders, VC Funds, Funds of Funds, foundations, angel investor groups, and more than 50 corporates. In addition, I consumed hundreds of hours of Y Combinator, DreamIt Ventures, and other startup/founder videos, podcasts, articles, plus attended dozens of events, seminars, and panels about VCs, emerging fund managers, and startups. I spent one year absorbing as much content as possible and actually building ventures and startups with entrepreneurs before doing Venture University. I wish I had done Venture University before starting startups and investing.

Net, VU has been by far, the best and most useful content and learning experience I have had. I found more value in what VU put together and shared with us in the first week than in one year of all the other resources. The two VU leaders distilled the fundamentals of Venture Capital and the startup world and shared useful guidance on how to move forward based on their decades of VC experience. This is priceless! I wish that I had done this program sooner.

Bottom line, I value the experience, the content, the insights, and wisdom that Skyler, Andrew and the rest of the VU team shared.

I highly recommend this program.