Summer Intern Blog Post: Vincent G Bellitti at Elevance Health

Name

Vincent G Bellitti

NYU Program

Full-time MBA (graduating Spring 2023)

Fund

Elevance Health (formerly Anthem)

Investment Stage

All stages (early — late); typically Series A and later

Focus Area

Healthcare companies

How’d you get this internship?

“I applied on their general website. I have a deep background in healthcare as I’ve been running an independent pharmacy for a few years. So that healthcare experience and knowledge likely gave me a leg up in getting selected from the resume drop, then in the interview, too. Many of the other applicants were undergrads (I found that out after I started), so being more experienced also helped it seems.”

How would you describe your day-to-day?

“I help with everything besides sourcing. I spend time making new models, referencing models others have made and updating them, reporting to the broader Corp Dev team, writing investment memos, and listening to pitches.”

What were some of the ways you supported existing portfolio companies?

“I help with internal reporting for Portcos. Basically sitting in on relevant meetings and reporting to internal execs on what was discussed, who else we need to get involved, recording takeaways, etc.”

What was something that surprised/challenged you?

“We don’t invest solely for a “return”. Being a large health insurance company, we invest for incremental operational gain. So our deals will include an equity stake, but often we’re getting better costs, better access, expanded network, or some sort of beneficial collaboration between ourselves and the company. This is something unique to the “corporate investing” world and was interesting to see up close.”

Most valuable lesson during summer?

“Many companies make the same mistake and try to scale too quickly before the proper infrastructure is in place. This causes massive growth challenges down the road. I’ve seen the effects of this in late stage (i.e. $500M companies) and in smaller ($20M companies) as many make this mistake, keep the founders too involved in every process, etc.”

What advice would you give another Stern MBA looking to do their first PE/VC internship?

“Put yourself out there and be patient. Try to lean into your background and strengths. I had a lot of trouble getting hired for “pure investment roles” until I really leaned into my healthcare experience. That’s when I started getting more interviews and eventually an internship. If you don’t immediately have the investment skills to get hired (which I didn’t), you need to lean on your industry experience a bit more to have a better chance of getting noticed.”

Contact Info

LinkedIn and email —vincent.bellitti@stern.nyu.edu