Happy Thursday,
We're one more week into the semester. Clinic students picked companies to collaborate with and our Mentorship Program kicks off today. It's a good week!
“Networking is an undervalued skill in the world”.
- Ken Coleman
Top Five
🔢 “Mentorship happens organically, and you can’t just force it. Many [people] don’t even know HOW to mentor, and often mentor others by accident. It’s not a mentor’s responsibility to mentor, it’s the responsibility of the mentee to seek mentorship and appropriate it.” Not much I can add to that, Zak breaks down ‘What’s the Difference Between a Mentor, an Advisor, and a Coach?’.
📈I probably get one student reach out every week about cold-emailing or startup etiquette. I notice most struggle with building empathy. In an example on how to do exactly that, morning brew shares ‘How to Cold Email Your Way into Your Dream Job’
🎾To expand on our mentorship conversation, a while ago A16Z put out this useful conversation that decomposes how top investors look at mentor/mentee relationships. Although the best would never dare to be called such, great mentors have an ability to listen, ask the right questions, and come up with the answer, but wait for the mentee to reach their own conclusion.
💰Looking for your next investment? Well, you may want to check out ‘The Investment Opportunity in School Bus Operators’. Crazy? Well REITs college pre-leases are extremely high, Europe is reopening schools, and COVID has to end (some day).
⏱Blend an expert citizen, storytelling, and translation, and you get an architect. But not any architect, “An architect that designs for social impact, not buildings”. What if the true expert is the customer, the person experiencing the problem and not the pundit from the outside? Maybe we should flip our view of expertise on its head.
Events
1- We kick off the student side of mentorship today. If you are a student, register for our Mentee-Only event tonight here.
2- Friday 9/18 from 1:30 - 2:30pm the 3rd and Final #Luminary joins us: Jessica McDonald of the US Women’s Soccer Team, the NC Courage, and a local here in North Carolina! Join this fireside chat to hear more about resilience, determination, and grit as a powerful woman and athlete who is giving back on and off the field! Register here.
3- Customer Discovery Help: Hey! I'm Jeyashree, a recent NC State grad and local entrepreneur. I'm in the thick of customer discovery. If you have traveled internationally at any point in your life, I'd love to talk with you!
If you're open to a quick zoom call, here's the link:
http://bit.ly/CDjeyashree
Thanks a ton :)
The Scoop
Onna
The local company leading data piping is hiring. Find all the open roles here.
BCVP Portfolio Companies:
Let us know if you are interested, or if you know someone who may be.
Head of Communications – Even
Salesforce Administrator/Developer – Adwerx
Marketing Director – Circonus
Director of Sales – Full Measure
Various positions – Levitate
Senior Full-Stack Software Engineer – ServiceTrade
CTO – Spoonflower
Mann+Hummel Corporate Ventures Intern
We are looking for an undergraduate or graduate student to intern with our Corporate Venture group for the fall semester. Tasks will range from helping streamline how we source and evaluate investments candidates, to assisting internal digital venture teams on various tasks, to conducting research on different market and technology areas. Engineering or science backgrounds preferred, particularly if you like automating systems and have diverse areas of technology interests.
Signature Bank
The newly formed Venture Banking Division of Signature Bank is hiring a portfolio analyst for its Durham location. Unique opportunity to work directly with an experienced lending team focused on early stage companies in the venture space. The Analyst will assist the team with the underwriting analysis for new and existing deals including monthly monitoring, spreading of financial statements and preparing sections of the deal memos. Assist with loan closing process including working with other areas of the Bank to fully onboard the client.
Requirements:
- Strong interest in the venture industry and desire to work with early stage
- Ability to work in a team environment
- Strong attention to detail and analytical skills
- Able to prioritize tasks in a fast-paced environment
- Microsoft outlook, Word and Excel; Spreading Financial Statements
- Strong communication and analytical skills
- College Graduate with 0-1 years of relevant experience