Exceptional Interns: Our Inaugural Year
Since inception in 2022, Exceptional Capital has recruited and accepted interns to support and complement the work of the full team. The first year, Marell sourced two students from the University of Michigan. Starting Summer 2023, we formalized the internship program with the intention of doing three distinct cohorts per year to align with college semesters — summer, fall and spring. After having completed one full year with three cohorts as intended, we want to take a moment to provide visibility into the process and structure of our program, in addition to highlighting the exceptional interns that we feel incredibly grateful to have worked alongside this past year.
Purpose
As a team, we believe that great mentorship is a critical factor in successful career trajectory. In speaking with students early on in our formalization process, it became abundantly clear that the venture landscape can easily feel unapproachable. To create a strong pipeline of future leaders within venture, we believe it is important to offer opportunities for mentorship and visibility. Curiosity about venture does not need to be met with an obfuscated view. Encouraging this intellectual curiosity is something we hope will support emerging venture investors.
There is another group of students which we hope to continue to provide opportunities to. As many of you reading this likely know, we have former student and professional athletes at Exceptional. For Marell and Andrew, mentorship to student-athletes is a professional initiative with a personal meaning. Practice schedules, off-season training, travel — there can unfortunately be many perceived obstacles to student-athletes’ access to internship opportunities. For this reason, we are open to working with students to plan around their athletic calendars — with a largely remote internship program, we have had no issues making the internship available to the two student athletes who joined us this year.
Inaugural Cohort (Summer 2023-Summer 2024)
We had a pool of 70 total applicants throughout the year from Q2 2023-Q2 2024. While we conducted an open call for the three cohorts, the basic demographic data does reflect our ability to maintain a relatively diverse pipeline, a trend that we hope to continue.
Out of the pool of 70 total applicants, we accepted 9 interns in total. This inaugural year, therefore, had an acceptance rate of 12.8%.
Applicants ranged from undergrad to MBA. Though we had candidates from more than 10 different colleges and universities apply, our interns from our inaugural cohort hailed from the following institutions:
- Boston College
- The University of Michigan
- Northeastern University
- University of Miami
- University of Richmond
- The New School
- Vanderbilt University (Grace came to Exceptional via a two month ‘externship’ from Vanderbilt’s Office of Investments)
Structure & Intended Outcomes
Our internship program is structured to last between 12 and 14 weeks in duration. While certain interns have had different focus areas, we have a guiding structure which consists of tasking and outlined opportunities for engagement and participation. These were developed to ensure exposure to four core sectors of venture operations and early stage investing:
- Investment Process: Sourcing and Diligence
- Portfolio Review
- Independent Research
- Network Building
Providing visibility into investment processes and portfolio management is complemented by the opportunity to conduct specific research and engage with the team in real-time conversations. The independent research provides an opportunity for interns to dive into an area of personal interest and they are also encouraged to write a blog or other public post of their choosing (shout out to the thoughtful work by Anastasia, Glen, Jared and Grace). A huge part of investing is ongoing inquiry, curiosity and constant learning — but it is also the ability to absorb, synthesize and share.
In addition to an onboarding session, we’ve also incorporated a dedicated overview of what a fund is (governing docs, fund structures, etc). Time is dedicated to learning about sourcing methodology and working with tooling and databases that Exceptional continues to develop internally. For example, Kiana supported a variety of our operational initiatives and her leadership on diligence processes was integral as we worked to close a deal. Cristian performed extensive research and analysis, surfacing many strong leads for sourcing and community building. Jack has been working on a soon-to-be released project that we can’t wait to share..!
Interns typically meet with the full team and are present for team calls twice per week, alongside weekly check-ins, office hours and one-on-one meetings to support ongoing projects and tasks. We also have tailored conversations around the importance of network building — how it is relevant in the venture ecosystem and that it is never too early to begin! Opportunities for virtual conferences and other events are shared as well.
Media & Design Interns
We introduced this category to further highlight that building a venture firm and operating a fund has other important roles beyond investing. Design and strategic communication is essential for any brand. Our media & design interns have worked on branding initiatives, newsletter development, portfolio company support and content creation, in addition to supporting us at in-person events. Hamza and Hannah’s creativity, talent and skill has been incredibly valuable and we are so thankful for their exceptional contributions!
An Exceptional Experience
Of course we have our own ideas internally about how to shape the internship program, but we rely on feedback from interns themselves to let us know their perspectives on the benefits of the program and what they valued most. Here are some testimonials from a few of our 2023–2024 interns:
From Jared Joseph:
“Seeing former athletes, now Partners, pouring their energy into something that required balancing a team, utilizing a playbook, and leaning into their hunger for winning connected with me more than they could imagine. I was able to learn a lot in a short period by just being curious…the Exceptional team was always available to share their knowledge. During my time I gained valuable knowledge on the intricacies of a focused approach to VC as well as the competitive nature of the SaaS/AI ecosystem itself…I wish [the internship] could have been longer because my experience was, in more ways than one, synonymous with the name of the firm.”
From Glen McClintock:
“The Exceptional internship was the perfect introduction into venture capital. I really enjoyed the blend of proactiveness and mentorship within the internship…I was given tasks to contribute to the firm and help me learn the fundamentals of venture, while I also was provided the opportunities and resources to pursue personal areas of interest…I feel like my development as a young VC was a high priority, not to mention being around such a hungry and lively team everyday brought out the best in me.”
Exceptionally Grateful
We are so grateful for everyone who joined us this year. Not only have interns executed on important internal projects and made progress on their own personal intellectual discovery — they have also contributed new ideas, unique perspectives, great questions, playlist recommendations and thoughtful analysis. Internships provide us with the ability to work alongside great talent while ensuring that Exceptional continues to be a space that promotes intellectual curiosity and diverse collaboration.
Our sincere thanks to Anastasia, Glen, Kiana, Hamza, Hannah, Grace, Jared, Jack and Cristian for working with us over the course of this past year. It has been a pleasure to work alongside them and we appreciate all of their efforts and contributions to Exceptional!
Want to be an Exceptional intern?
We accept applications year round, if you are interested please submit an application here.
