NFX TechBio Fellowship at UC Berkeley

NFX is building the next-gen VC firm.  Before NFX, the Partners started 10 companies that exited for over $10 billion, and now NFX is one of the fastest growing brands in tech. 

We invest at the pre-seed and seed stage. Our $450M fund III is the largest fund focused on this stage. Everything we do is about giving Founders an edge. We have built a 40+ person team that supports our Founders in all aspects of building their companies.  We also create free software and content to benefit the broader Founder community we can’t invest in.

We’re looking for a few exceptional students to be our thought partners on Berkeley campus.

Who are you?

You’re a Berkeley PhD, MD, MS, or MBA (focus on biotech/healthcare) student. Who...

Is driven by a deep desire to see scientific discoveries make a real impact on the world. You’re not just interested in theory; you’re obsessed with the application of science to solve real-world problems. Translating complex research into viable products and platforms that change lives is what gets you out of bed in the morning.

Can’t resist being around startups. Maybe you’ve been a founder yourself. You’ve worked at a fast growing startup, or have evaluated startups as an investment. You have late night jam sessions with founder friends. You’re a student of innovation and always find yourself gravitating towards it. You see the potential in new technologies and can’t help but dive into the nitty-gritty of how to bring them to market.

Got a lot of hustle. At the core VC is a service job. In fact, it’s a sales job. Founders are our clients, and we pride ourselves on our hustle, speed, decisiveness, empathy, dexterity, patience, endurance. 

Are one amazing human being. Strong at heart, generous in spirit. Charismatic, passionate, perceptive, humble, driven, humorous, and confident…by that we mean not just “I can do it” confident, but “It’s ok if I can’t do it” confident. We’ll be working closely together; we want to be inspired by you and learn from you!

We will probably *not* be a good fit for you if: You’ve always succeeded at everything; you want to work alone; you care more about what other people think than what you believe; you’re just looking for a gold star on your resume.

About the Fellowship

NFX Fellowship is unlike any other internship / scout program on campus. To maintain focus and keep the quality of interactions high, we limit our Fellows program to just two or three fellows every class, and fellows get intimate interactions with NFX investors.

Here is what the past NFX fellows said about their experience:

"If you want to get your first taste of early stage investing, you have to be involved with NFX. They are willing to spend time with you and teach you the ropes and are genuinely founder friendly."

"In five years I will look back at the NFX Fellows Program and think this is where I really kick started my career in VC."

"NFX Fellowship is an amazing program with great people, take advantage and become a strategic pillar on campus.......It was fantastic."

"I learned more as an NFX Fellow than I did during my year of MBA classes"

An important part of the fellowship will be running NFX Berkeley FAST; a special funding competition dedicated to Berkeley startups. In 2023, Poka Labs, Alma, TransPore Bio (Sanso) and Blitzzy AI each received 100K-250K investments through FAST. As an NFX Fellow, you will be heavily involved in organizing, marketing, and evaluating startups for NFX FAST.

As an NFX Fellow, you'll be our eyes and ears within the Berkeley ecosystem. Fellows have the opportunity to:

• Get experience in sourcing, evaluating, and supporting companies.
• Develop a sense for evaluating promising science startups. 
• Build relationships with student founders, innovative labs on campus, and entrepreneurship communities
• Develop insight into the current white hot areas of innovation
• Connect inspiring founders with the NFX team and help evaluate their companies and products
• Host on-campus events for student entrepreneurship communities (i.e. Idea Weekend, Network effects workshops, the NFX Berkeley FAST competition, etc)
• Attend an in-person retreat in San Francisco (Nov 8-10) with NFX investors and fellows from other schools (Stanford, Harvard, MIT)

In short, you will be exposed to the ins and outs of being a seed stage investor.

• The fellows will receive a monthly stipend.
• As a fellow, you will meet with different members of the NFX team regularly and have additional ad hoc meetings at different points of the year. As a fellow you will send regular e-mail updates to the NFX team to provide updates / status check-ins. You can expect about 10 hrs/ week of time commitment as a fellow.
• NFX Fellowship is a year-long engagement. If your first year as a fellow is very successful, you may get an opportunity to extend the fellowship for your second year.

To apply to the NFX Fellowship, please fill out the below application. We will conduct interviews on a rolling basis.

About NFX

NFX is the venture firm we wish existed when we were running startups. We’ve invested in companies like Trulia, Lyft, DoorDash, Poshmark, Honeybook, and Patreon, and many others.

We run our venture firm like a startup. In addition to investing, we write code, develop content, make connections, and help build exceptional leaders. 

Here are some of the software products we’re building for the startup ecosystem:

• Signal, The network of VC’s, Founders, Scouts, and Angels
• BriefLink, the tool for Founders to pitch VC’s

Here is where we share our learnings with founders: 

• https://www.nfx.com/essays
• https://brieflink.com/best_fundraising_advice/