Early Stage Capital – True Ventures » 2009

News

Monthly Archive for September 2009

Looking Back on TEC

September 30, 2009

As we have written previously, the TEC program was the manifestation of a series of conversations we had last winter about how we might be able to help a group of college students immerse themselves in the worlds of entrepreneurship and venture capital through a summer of active, hands-on learning with companies that we work with in the San Francisco area. We were excited to think about the positive experience we might create by providing our companies with bright and motivated summer interns, and, at the same time, we might be able to kick-start the entrepreneurial aspirations and activities of a number of young people who were looking to learn more about working with startups and perhaps even founding their own companies someday. In theory, it sounded great for everyone involved.

In practice, what did we find once our eight interns arrived in June? We quickly discovered that our expectations for them and the quality of contributions they would make to the companies and to our firm would not only be met, but far exceeded. For some of the interns, this was their first experience working in a nine-to-five (or, as it turned out, nine-to-later-than-five) job setting. To a person, however, they all jumped in feet first and worked hard to soak up as much as they could during their eight weeks in San Francisco. Thanks to their supervisors at B-Stock, BrightRoll, GigaOm, Infectious, SendMe, Syncplicity, and TextDigger, they were able to take on real responsibilities and make meaningful contributions to the companies they worked with.

Their summer experiences weren’t restricted to these companies. Every Thursday, we hosted the group at our office for lunch and a series of conversations with our team, entrepreneurs we know, and other great people from the extended True network. Through these sessions, we had the chance to come to know the eight of them and to appreciate the enthusiasm with which they approached everything they did during the summer. They were a wonderfully thoughtful, talented, and creative bunch, and these Thursday afternoons were a highlight of the summer—for them and for us.

We couldn’t be more pleased about the way the program turned out and the fantastic group of young people we were able to welcome into the True family. For us, the only thing more exciting than thinking about this summer’s TEC program is planning to continue and expand the program next year. Thanks to Adam, Alex, Andrew, Cameron, Chris, Nik, Qiyun, and Stephanie for all their efforts this summer, and we’re looking forward to TEC 2010 already.

- Christiaan