Cohort 2 included 23 investors (~0.5% accepted) that formed five deal sourcing teams: Consumer, FinTech, Healthcare, HighTech, and Impact.
Cohort 2 Deal Sourcing Teams
Consumer Team
Aakash Jain
After VU: Joined as a Investment Principal at VU Venture Partners
- Previously Venture Fellow at Jump Capital, Growth-Equity Advisor at FinTech Partners, and Algorithmic Trader (coding + markets junkie) at Morgan Stanley
- MBA, University of Chicago (Booth); Co-Founder & Membership Lead at Booth Bay Area Angel Network (Booth BAAN)
- Built a world championship winning formula-style 600cc race car on the FSAE car-team while studying Computer Science at Cornell University
Kiyoko Osone
After VU: Joined as a Managing Director of Knockout Capital and Cryptonite Ventures, focusing on blockchain, fintech, e-sports, robotics, consumer, and healthcare
- Associate at Morgan Stanley
- Research Study Coordinator at UCLA Heath
- UCLA - English Literature & Neuroscience
Brian Kelley
After VU: Joined Alden Investment Group doing Private Equity Sales
- Angel Investor and Real Estate Capital Raiser
- Previously Institutional Sales & Trading Director at R.W. Pressprich & Co. Inc. and Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.
- Assistant Controller at GoldenTree Asset Management L.P.
- Assurance Senior Associate at PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP.
- CFA Charterholder and CPA (NY)
- Lehigh University - BS Finance & Accounting
Karishma Patel
After VU: Joined Tim Draper's investment fund platform Draper Venture Network, managing multiple venture capital funds
- Platform Specialist at LiveIntent
- Strategy & Operations at ClassPass
- Digital Marketing at Columbia Records
- Masters in Social Entrepreneurship at USC Marshall
- Harvard Business School, HBX, Business Analytics, Economics, & Financial Accounting
- NYU (BA), Music Industry Management & Media & Technology
Wayne Lim
After VU: Joined as a Venture Fellow at Venture University and is looking to raise a venture fund.
- Involved with four startups, co-founded three of them
- Work experience at Bain & Company, W.R. Hambrecht & Company, SynerAsia Venture Capital, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle and Infosys
- Harvard (MBA) and Case Western Universities (Doctoral degree)
- Board of Directors, Harvard Business School Newspaper
- Author of Prentice-Hall Software Management book, Managing Software Reuse
FinTech Team
Elias Can
After VU: Joined an an Investment Analyst at Fenox Venture Capital
- Formerly a Portfolio Management Associate at Harding Loevner
- The College of New Jersey - BS Finance
- Die-hard NBA fan, Fintech & Blockchain enthusiast
Noubar Tedjirian
After VU: Joined as a Venture Fellow at Venture University and interviewing at venture funds and private equity funds
- Previously Management Consultant at Euroconsult North America
- Studied Finance at McGill University
- Active Boy Scouts leader and volunteer within Armenian communities
- Sports and eSports enthusiast
Yan Mu
After VU: Joining VU for a 2nd semester
- Asset Servicing at BNY Mellon
- Senior Operations Analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch
- Senior Portfolio Manager at AuRui Chemical Corp
- Shanghai Finance & Economics University, Masters in Financial Engineering
- Liverpool John Moores University, Masters in International Banking & Finance
Ben York
After VU: Joined as an Investment Associate at Archview, largest investment fund dedicated to the legal cannabis industry.
- Formerly an Account Executive at Remedly Inc and an Analyst at Citigroup in Equity Derivatives and Mortgage Backed Securities
- Studied Economics with a concentration in Financial Markets at Colby College
- Sneaker collector and investor and avid Arsenal FC fan
Jeff Piltch
After VU: Joined as a Senior Venture Associate at Real Company, a real estate technology VC
Sold family-owned business ARS Restoration Specialists to The RESCON Group in June of 2018, a strategic buyer financed by PNC Mezzanine Capital
Jeff stayed on as Director of Corporate Development before pursuing a career in VC
Active member of Beacon Angels and SideCar Angels in Boston
Founder and Manager of R&J RE LLC, a real estate investment and management group based in Boston
CFA Charterholder and Massachusetts Licensed Construction Supervisor
Healthcare Team
JJ Fang
After VU: Went back to Taiwan to raise a venture capital fund.
- Previously Investment Manager @TTVC
- Previously at New Deantronics, Quanta and Innolux
- Masters in Applied Mechanics at Taiwan University
Margaret Quigley
After VU: Continued to manage personal investment portfolio, looking to become an active angel investor, and joined Venture University as a Venture Fellow
- Investment Manager, Managing Personal Investment Portfolio
- Director of Institutional Equity Trading, Telsey Advisory Group
- Director of Institutional Equity Trading, JMP Group
- Director of Institutional Equity Trading, Bank of America
- Hackbright Academy, Python Coding
Joe Harris
After VU: Joined Venture University as a Venture Fellow and interviewing at hedge funds, venture funds, and private equity funds.
- Skilled at strategic management and practices for formulating, implementing, and evaluating strategies in organizations under conditions of disruptive technological change and uncertainty
- Designed, implemented, and back tested algorithmic (IPython) Forex trading strategies at Quantopian
- Master of Science degree in Organizational Management from Eastern Connecticut State University
Vitor Lima
After VU: Received an offer to join a multi-billion private equity buyout fund
- Blockchain & Crytpocurrency Hedge Fund Manager
- 5x Entrepreneur
- College Dropout To Do VC
HighTech Team
Grant Kendall-Bell
After VU: Joined Venture University for a 2nd Semester, focusing on the Frontier Tech in Cohort 3
- Degree in Business, specialized in Entrepreneurial Finance and Investment at AU, LSE, CUHK
- Senior Tech Sector Analyst at AU Student Managed Investment Fund
- Business Development Research Analyst, Booz Allen Hamilton
- Regional Finalist in Venture Capital Investment Competition
- Space industry enthusiast, aspiring subject matter expert in Space Tech investment
Jagruti Bhikha
After VU: Continued to professionally invest as super angel investor and looking to raise her own fund
- Angel Investor, 38+ portfolio companies
- Senior Innovation Consultant, Institute of Food Technologists (IFT)
- Founding Partner, Wingpact
- Tech Mentor, Singularity University
- Global Account Manager, Cisco
- MS, Project Management, George Washington University
- NYU - Polytechnic School of Engineering & Computer Science
Ben Steven
After VU: Joined as Associate Partner at Momenta Ventures, leading the Connected Industry Fund
- CFO, Bipronum, a Silicon Valley company developing the first-ever cloud-based DIY workflow solution
- Co-CEO / Owner, Steven GmbH, Modernized a 170-yr old business and reinforced global leadership position
- Senior Portfolio Manager, ABP Investments, world’s 3rd-largest managed pension fund
Rohit Gupta
After VU: Joined as an Investment Analyst at Plug and Play's investment Fund, leading cybersecurity investments
- Product Manager, ShieldX Networks
- Investment Banking Summer Analyst, Credit Suisse
- Investment Banking Analyst, Bridge Street Advisors
- Business Technology Analyst, Deloitte
- UC Berkeley, Business Administration
Impact Team
Stefan Arteaga
After VU: Joined Venture University for a 2nd Semester to join Cohort 3's Healthcare investment team & then joined as an Associate at LTX VC
- Innovation & Entrepreneurship minded professional with experience in both nanotechnology and marketing
- Cross-cultural experience in Latin America and Europe.
- IP Portfolio Manager, Capacitor Sciences
- Production Chemist & Marketing, Polypure AS
- University of Olso, MS, Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Alina Tioupikova
After VU: Received two venture capital job offers and joined as Director of Product Management at Techstars
- Experience ranging from startups, large enterprise, and government, dabbling in product, engineering and Ops.
- Knowledge in leading and empowering teams to create innovative products that disrupt at scale
- Led new technology initiatives on Pearson’s Global Product team, introducing VR and AI capabilities, delivering next-gen digital learning experience
- Previously, co-founded an incubator in Australia that focused on helping non-technical entrepreneurs build and launch MVPs in the consumer facing tech space
- Has a background in Entrepreneurship and Computer Science and thrives in conversations that intersect the two
Yvonne Okafor
After VU: Joined as an Investment Analyst at Alitheia Capital
- Born in Nigeria, raised in Argentina, Nigeria and the United States
- Previously a Venture Fellow at Score 3 Angel Network and Operations Intern at United Way Worldwide
- Passionate about investing to developed emerging markets, especially Sub-Sahara Africa
- American University - Masters of Science in Finance; CAIA candidate
