Paving a path in tech and VC with Kelsi Kamin (Capital Factory)

We were thrilled to talk with Kelsi Kamin, a recent UT Austin grad (’17) who now works as an associate at Capital Factory, an accelerator and early-stage venture fund in Austin.

Though Kelsi only graduated a year ago, she already has an incredible breadth of experiences thanks to the internships she did while still in school. Kelsi interned at Salesforce, CrunchBase, Draftapp, The Pitch Academy, and Enhatch. On campus, she served as a VP at the Longhorn Entrepreneurship Agency and worked on the leadership team for the Genesis Program, the first student-run venture fund at UT Austin.

We talked with Kelsi about balancing school with internships, how to make an impact as an intern, and her thoughts on Austin’s growing entrepreneurship community.

How did you get interested in entrepreneurship and VC?

I grew up in a family of engineers and scientists in New Jersey, and was glued to the computer screen from the age of seven. I used to make Neopets layouts and sell those, which was fun, but didn’t last. My interests expanded a lot in high school, and I eventually decided to go to UT Austin but didn’t know what to major in. I changed my major three times from Economics to International Relations to a major in the Communications school with a minor in Computer Science.

One of my first internships was at an enterprise SaaS startup in New York that was fundraising. The CEO gave me Mattermark access and wanted me to make a list of VCs that they should be reaching out to. That led me to work at CrunchBase, where I figured out that I was interested in VC — it’s an amazing role where you get to find the newest technologies and work with really inspiring entrepreneurs to help bring their ideas to market.

How did you figure out how to split your time between classes and internships?

I wasn’t super fulfilled with my classes, so I ended up getting involved in a slew of other things. I fell into the Austin startup scene through a great professor who was consulting with startups. On my free time in winter breaks back in New York I spent some time getting to know startups there, and then during the school year I would work with up to three companies at any given point — sometimes remotely.

I’m not going to try to pretend like I was a perfect student! I was really engaged with everything I was doing outside the classroom, whether it was a remote internship or helping to build entrepreneurship activities on campus. I graduated on time with all the classes I wanted, but the balancing was tricky. Somehow when I had more to do that I was really excited and passionate about, I was able to get everything done for both school and my internships.

I would recommend to other students to get as much hands-on experience as possible. Don’t just have one or two internships during the summer! That’s what was most helpful for me in building my career path so far— it’s not about the number of years of full-time work experience you have, it’s about how much hands-on work you’ve done over time.

What were some of your most impactful internships, and why?

The most impactful one was with Crunchbase — they were part of TechCrunch at the time and there were 20 people on the team. When you get into a company that early, you get to do a lot of things you wouldn’t otherwise. I got to work on the Crunchbase Daily newsletter every morning with the editor. When she transitioned out, no one else knew how to do what she was doing, so I got to step up and run that for a little while, and I kept working for Crunchbase remotely once I returned to school.

In any internship, it’s important to understand your responsibilities and fulfill them, but also start meeting everyone leading different teams within the company. You want to understand what they are working on and where there are gaps, and then see if there are ways you can help out. Whether it’s answering support tickets or providing feedback on product features, if you take the initiative to help with other things, you’ll get a chance to work on a lot more and have a much greater impact.

How did you get involved with entrepreneurship on campus?

I got very involved with the student entrepreneurship scene at UT Austin and helped start the first student-run venture fund, which turned into the Genesis Program. It seems like something that should have been at our campus a long time ago, but only in the past few years we were able to make it a reality. I was on the leadership team for an arm of student government dedicated to fostering student entrepreneurship on campus. From these experiences, I learned how important it is to build something and test it with other people. A lot of students will talk about starting a company but won’t actually start the building process, so it never gets off the ground.

I also made sure to maintain the network I had built in the Bay Area and in New York, since there is a lot of activity on both coasts. Twitter was a great resource for that — it’s an easy way to see who is doing what and get involved in conversations. It’s so important to regularly check in with people who you’ve met not when you’ve need something, but just because you’re genuinely curious to see how things are going.

When deciding where to work full-time, how did you think about staying in Austin versus moving to one of the coasts?

There’s no doubt that the Bay Area and New York are two of the best places in the world to launch a career in tech and venture capital. But Austin’s tech scene has been growing like crazy, and shows no signs of slowing down. I meet entrepreneurs and investors who are moving here from one of the coasts every day. Ultimately, joining Capital Factory was a natural next step and a clear opportunity to help take Austin startups to the next level. There’s definitely more building to do, and I’m excited to play a role in that process!

Big thanks to Kelsi for taking the time to talk with us about her journey!

We’d love your feedback on this post and other career questions we should cover — you can reach us at justine@crv.com and olivia@crv.com. You can also subscribe to our weekly newsletter, Accelerated, for more tips on finding the perfect job or internship: https://accelerated.carrd.co/