Kim is not the only one who sees the benefits of this experience in venture capitalism. In its first year, Van Wickle Ventures received over 80 applications for seven student associate spots; this year, the total grew to 104 applicants for nine openings.

“We could refill each cohort with great people many times over,” said John Diorio, a senior computer science concentrator who co-founded and co-directs Van Wickle Ventures with fellow senior Sophie Starck. “At Brown, you find a lot of people who are self-motivated and curious about a wide range of topics. That is a natural fit for a program whose members are approaching founders each week to learn more about what makes their businesses exciting.”

Shared interest in a great idea

The goal of Van Wickle Ventures — to provide students with hands-on venture capital experience — has always been clear to its student founders. The path to achieving it, however, was cleared through research, planning and a bit of luck.

When Diorio and Starck arrived at Brown in 2016, the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship had just launched, bringing with it a bevy of resources inside the classroom and beyond, all aimed at students looking to found their own businesses. Even as they immersed themselves in this burgeoning landscape for student entrepreneurs, Diorio and Starck found themselves asking what investors see that startup founders might not.

But “there were no curricular or extracurricular resources at the time for students who wanted to learn like this,” Starck said.

So she and Diorio decided to create their own. Inspired by Diorio’s research on student-run venture capital groups at top U.S. business schools, the two pitched their idea to the Nelson Center. The response, while positive, was also practical: For their idea to take off, they would need money to invest — funds they would be more likely to secure if they could demonstrate that other students on campus shared their interest in gaining firsthand venture capitalist experience.

The two set to work. With Jonas Clark, associate director of the Nelson Center, serving as their faculty sponsor, Diorio and Starck developed and ran a semester-long group independent study project, which provided students pursuing diverse fields of study with the business background necessary to make successful investments. This independent seminar would become the basis of the semester-long training that new student associates complete when they join Van Wickle Ventures.

They also launched “Funding the Future,” a popular speaker series that brings alumni to campus to speak about their experiences as successful venture capitalists.

Meanwhile, Robert Place and his wife, Erna, had reached out to Clark to explore the possibility of facilitating hands-on investment experiences for students.

“I’ve always found that the best way to focus a person’s attention on making investments is if they have their own money to invest,” Robert Place said. “We wanted to give students the opportunity to teach themselves the principles of early-stage investing by giving them capital that they were actually responsible for.”

For Clark, Place’s idea had a familiar ring.

“He basically gave me the same pitch that Sophie and John had the year before,” Clark said. “It was exactly the right opportunity to get this great idea running.”

The Places’ gift was used to establish Van Wickle Ventures as an evergreen fund. This ensures that returns on the group’s investments will be reinvested into the fund, giving Van Wickle Ventures the potential to remain a self-sustaining, and ever-growing, entity. The approach has also appealed to the Brown- and RISD-based entrepreneurs the group seeks to finance.

“The fact that all of the returns on these investments will ultimately support future startup founders from Brown and RISD has really resonated with the founders we’ve approached,” Diorio said.

Alumni investments

Van Wickle Ventures has also created opportunities for alumni founders and venture capitalists to share their insights with current undergraduates interested in entrepreneurship.

When Van Wickle Ventures decided to fund 305 Fitness in December, company founder and Brown alumna Sadie Kurzban saw an occasion to give back to undergraduates at Brown. During a January visit to campus, she led one of her signature fitness classes before giving a public talk at the Nelson Center focused on the emotional skills — such as confidence and resilience — that make startup founders successful.

“You learn a lot about the business skills behind being an entrepreneur,” she said. “But 70% of the skill set is emotional. It’s about how you keep going when you don’t know what comes next.”

This investment in sharing experiences with Brown undergrads has been echoed by other founders that Van Wickle Ventures has approached.

“The entrepreneurs from the Brown community have shown an amazing amount of interest in working with students,” Place said. “We’ve had alums and community members being involved as both entrepreneurs and teachers, and I think it’s awesome.”

Student associates in Van Wickle Ventures also benefit from the insights of alumni venture capitalists. When the gift from the Places established the program, an investment committee was formed as well. Composed of four Brown alumni (including Place) — all with vast venture capital experience — and Jane Dietze, Brown’s chief investment officer, the committee offers final approval of the group’s investments and mentors its student associates as they identify, research and pitch potential investment opportunities.

For Kim, getting to see up-close how seasoned venture capitalists approach investment opportunities has been one of the most valuable aspects of her involvement with Van Wickle Ventures.

“At the end of the day, there are strategies to investing, but no one can predict the future,” she said. “So it’s been really interesting both to rigorously research these companies while also learning from the investment committee when you can be flexible and trust your gut.”

Members of the committee have also taken time to advise her on her career goals beyond Brown, Kim said.

“They have been extremely generous with their time,” she said. “When I’ve gone to them for advice about my post-graduate plans, they’ve shared details about their own lives and how they got to where they are today. It’s the kind of unique experience that you really only get at Brown.”