Contrary is a venture fund backed by the world’s most iconic entrepreneurs, including founders of Tesla and Reddit, that identifies and invests in top early-career talent.
We invest up to $500k in a small number of startups, and work closely alongside them to build enduring businesses.
Each year, we assemble a team of ~100 student Venture Partners (VPs) at nearly every major research university across America. We are a diverse group of founders, engineers, designers, hustlers, researchers, writers, and everything in between.
Contrary wouldn’t exist without our VP network. In many ways, Contrary is the VP network.
That’s why we’re so excited to recruit the next generation of students to join the Contrary family.
Being a Venture Partner
Your job as a Venture Partner is to be the go-to resource for founders on campus or even virtually. One day you might grab coffee with someone working on a side project. The next day, you might research the consumer fintech space because we’re evaluating a relevant company. You’ll learn how to make investment decisions, how to tell a story, and how to build a startup.
We look for oddballs and independent thinkers with diverse experiences — underestimated backgrounds make for the best investors! Previous Contrary VPs have given up a career as a pro climber to attend college, written apps with 100k+ downloads, and filmed a documentary in the Arctic. There is no VP archetype. The only requirements are that you love tech and entrepreneurship, and will put in the time and effort to make the most of the opportunity.
Ultimately there are a lot of reasons to join Contrary. You might want to dive deep into the venture world and get rigorous investing experience you can’t get anywhere else. Or perhaps you simply want a good excuse to talk to smart people hacking on interesting projects. Above all else, we hope that you lean into the community and build bonds lasting a lifetime.
All the details you’ll need
- We’re hosting a national info session virtually on Monday, August 31 at 6pm PT/9pm ET. We’ll give an in-depth overview of Contrary and the Venture Partner role. RSVP below.
- We will review applications as they come in, so apply now. The sooner the better. We have a final deadline of September 12th at 11:59pm PT.
- We generally prefer people with more than one year of school left, but have made exceptions in the past, especially for MBA students.
- Our process will include 3 steps: a chat with a member of the Contrary HQ team, a casual interview with the other Contrary VPs at your school, and a conversation with our founder Eric.
- Reach out to vp@contrarycap.com with any additional questions. We’re always happy to chat.
- The Venture Partner role is a school-year commitment that lasts until you graduate.
Genuinely, we can’t wait to hear from you. Please introduce yourself below!
If interested, please apply here.
