Zenda Capital Research Fellowship

💡 At Zenda, we’re kicking off our research fellowship program, where we welcome students to support us across our research efforts. Our Fellows will spend six weeks exploring specific investment themes within areas including agriculture, healthcare & transportation/supply chain and get a first-hand glimpse into the world of venture investing.

Launched by seasoned founders and operators, Zenda is a research-driven, early-stage venture capital firm investing into founders who are building the software layer for underserved industries.

As risk-aligned investors, we are the 2nd largest LP in our $30m fund, writing checks from $500K-$1.5M. Zenda was founded in November 2021 by Esteban Reyes, who previously built, scaled and exited several B2B companies in the US and LATAM and invested into software companies including Cypress, Addi and SmartHop. Our venture partners Evan and Chetan previously led Twilio’s product and GTM teams, respectively, all the way through IPO.

For more information on how we invest, check out our main page.

Overview

As new markets emerge and existing ones are reconfigured, so does the need for a new layer of enabling technologies to support them. We back technical founders creating the infrastructure for the broader economy – the “picks and shovels” for many other founders to transform underserved industries.

During the six-week program, fellows will explore a pre-approved research topic with the goal of building a unique investment thesis. At Zenda, we see our fellows as an extension of the research team and are invested into their success. We will spend 1-on-1 time providing guidance and feedback on key learnings. While this fellowship is more geared towards research and is not an investing internship, fellows will have the opportunity to contribute to the sourcing process as they evaluate investment opportunities within his or her investment theme.

Outcome

Our fellows will complete this program, with the following benefits:

Building a thesis-driven mindset towards venture investing
Hands-on mentorship and detailed guidance from the Zenda team
Subject matter and domain expertise and thought leadership on their research topic with an extensive research deliverable that they can continue to leverage in the future
Rigorous training on conducting research with a practical application
A deep interest for technical products and finding the next billion dollar opportunity
Become a part of the operator and investor network at Zenda

Roles & Responsibilities

Our fellows should be deeply committed to doing exceptional work throughout this program and will benefit from our time and guidance. Although we don’t expect our fellows to have prior early-stage investing experience, we expect them to take initiative and ownership in this process.

Key Responsibilities

[ ] Commit to executing on key milestones and deadlines
[ ] Come to our weekly 1:1s prepared with questions and discussion topics
[ ] Conduct primary (i.e. direct stakeholder outreach) and secondary research (i.e. expert network) for your deliverable
[ ] Develop a comprehensive investment thesis
[ ] Present your findings to the investment team

Our Expectations

[ ] Be deeply curious and extremely inquisitive
[ ] Be able to synthesize information effectively and communicate a point-of-view efficiently
[ ] Be creative in how you find and develop unique insights
[ ] Have a keen eye for detail, execution and quality of their work
[ ] Have a positive attitude 😃

Questions

If you are interested in applying for the fellowship, please fill out this questionnaire by January 27th.

If you have any additional questions, please feel free to reach out to Jeffrey Dong at jeff@zenda.vc.

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VC Fellowship @ Zenda Capital in Remote