During COVID, I have a revelation that one of my bucket list items — starting a fund that creates positive impacts in the world — doesn’t have have to start a few years later when I have more experience! I can start that NOW. I have done a little bit of angel investing and have always had interest in doing this more seriously. Why not now? This helps me live more aligned with my mission — to create, invest, spend and give in a way that aligned with my values and help others do the same. I started doing research for the past months and I found the following programs through online research and referral from friends in the startup and VC world. I hope my research could help the people who want to make a change in how we allocate our capital.
For Beginners:
Venture Deals by Brad Feld — Free
If you have not read Brad Feld’s book Venture Deals, please do it! You’ll learn all the VC lingo that confuse you and realize how simple everything really is. Kaufman & Techstars sponsor this 7-week long program twice a year and they are doing the class 3 times in 2020 because of COVID. I have heard a lot of good things about it from my research and friends. So I’ve invited many people to take this for fun. Anyone can take it. I think this is good to go through just to understand how VC works as an entrepreneur as well.
Wharton Venture Capital Executive Program — $9,250–$11,350
I have never taken this course before but I found it online. The low price is for online live class and $11,350 is for live class in SF. The networking opportunity is through Q&A forum and after hours with faculty and cohort. I didn’t apply or research much on it because none of my friends recommended this to me. They do seem to have worldwide participants from their website.
Pipeline Angels — $9,500 ($4,500 fee + $5,000 investment)
I love the founder, the management team and what this organization stands for. I have first heard about their Pitch Summit through my local startup community. But I didn’t know about their Angel Bootcamp until a female VC who went through their program highly recommended me to take it. This is really for someone that is new in angel investing and wants to learn how to do it in an impactful way locally. They only open the program for female/nonbinary/femme investors. The bootcamp includes an education section for unconscious bias investing, pair you with a mentor, and only invest through local pitch summits to eradicate the network centric investing. It’s not about who you know, it’s about what you do. The grass is not greener on the other side. It’s green where you water it.
On Deck Angels — $5,000
This is a new 8-week program by BeOnDeck. A friend who went through an OnDeck Fellow recommended me to join. It’s created for successful startup operators and founders that have worked in startups before and want to be a hands-on angel and really helpful to the entrepreneurs. I believe these angels would also invest in the startups cohort from BeOnDeck, which I heard, is like the new Y Combinator.
Venture Capital University by Berkeley (VCU)— $1,200-$1,500
This is an 8-week online or live program created as a joint initiative of Startup@BerkeleyLaw, National Venture Capital Association, and Venture Forward. Again, I have never taken it, but Sarah Downey wrote a long piece about her experience that you can read about here.
For Intermediate
Venture University (VU) — $15,000-$20,000
I found Venture University through my own research and I actually talked to many of the people there. Everyone that I talked to have been super open and awesome. I would say you could probably get the most immersive experience in VU because you are essentially paying to work, which I think it’s the best way to learn — by doing. It used to have a in-person experience pre-COVID. They have an office in SF, NYC and Hong Kong, but it’s all virtual now. The deals that they have are also getting better from one cohort to the next. You also get a chance to invest along side with the best deals. You can also join their VU syndicate program to invest without doing the program. However, $15,000 to $20,000 for 3 months is a lot! It must be worth it though, because some members are doing multiple cohorts!
Going VC by John Gannon Blog — $6,999
A friend from the VC world told me about GoingVC even though he’s never taken it. John Gannon seems to be a generous person and his blog has been helping people understand the VC industry for a long time. The goal of GoingVC’s 16-week program is to create more transparency in the VC world as well as helping people break into the VC world. They have many graduates that have gotten jobs in the VC world and are continuing to stay engaged in the community. This a blog post of their latest cohort [Cohort 6]’s metrics and highlights.
RBL1 VC Intensive — $4999 + $59/month
I have never heard of this group, but when I googled VC programs, I found this post written by the founder of this group, Sergio Marrero. It’s sort of how I found some of the groups here. This seems like a group that just got started this year. If anyone has any experience, please let me know! It seems very similar to GoingVC and Venture University. I’ll update the post if you let me know!
For Experienced Angels or VCs
Afore Angel to Fund Manager by Afore Capital — Free
This is a new two-month program created by Afore Capital, a 124-M fund that focuses on early stage investing. The 5 modules are “evaluating options and transitions, differentiation & branding, mechanics of fundraising, portfolio construction, and LP week”. They are aiming for experienced angel investors or emerging fund managers to try to get more people to invest early. The lecturers seem world class! I applied but they haven’t gotten back to me. Haha. Maybe I am too much of a newbie to them.
VC Unlocked: Silicon Valley Online — $7,999–$9,999
This 10-day program created by Stanford and 500 Startups used to be much more expensive. However, they are doing a special during COVID! If you applied early, it was going to be $7,999 and it’s now $9,999. It used to be nomination only and they are now opening it up for all to apply. They even offered 2 scholarships for minority and female VCs, but it’s too late when I found out so I didn’t apply.
Kauffman Fellowship — $80,000
I didn’t really look into the Kauffman Fellows Program much because it’s $80,000! Maybe in a few years. It’s a two-year training program with seven 3.5-day learning modules. Writing this reminds of the leadership program I did at Raytheon. Note: This is one of the sponsors of the Venture Deals Program stated above! The emphasis is on the networking experience as well as the personal and leadership development. Classes are live in cities with major startup ecosystems. Global Summits that happened worldwide are regular reunions of the entire Kauffman Fellows Network. Before applying, check out Jorge Torres’s blog post. [PS: I found out about this through Sergio Marrero’s post]
Conclusion
I wrote this all in 2 sittings today with about 1 hour time. I partly wrote this for my future self to later come back to decide which program to take next, partly to help my old self who was doing this research! I wish I had all these information. If anyone wants to reach out and ask me questions, feel free to reach out. What works for me might not work for you and vice versa! I believe that for those who have the desires and tenacity, they should be given opportunities and support to do so. That’s why I wrote this article. Hope this helps you!
I also welcome anyone with more info to clarify what I wrote. Let me know if I made any mistake.
