VC & Accelerator Practicum Experience

 

By: Yaar Herman, a recent Entrepreneurship & Business

Administration graduate.


Hi everyone,


My name is Yaar Herman, and I just recently completed my 3rd and last year at RU. During my final year, I had the opportunity to intern at a mid & late-stage VC (also known as growth VC) called Claltech, as part of my last year’s final project.


Claltech is the VC arm of a large global investment firm called Access Industries in Israel. Claltech invests mostly in Israeli startups that are already generating revenue, passed the product-market-fit stage, and raised several rounds of funding.
Besides the obvious reason of having a footstep in the very-hard-to-enter VC space, and as a finance-enthusiast, I found Claltech to be very interesting and a great opportunity to gain real-life experience working with well-known firms, a highly appreciated investment team, with a high volume of investments.


Being a part of a small investment team really hit beyond any expectation I could have had, the main reasons would be the time that the team spent teaching and mentoring me throughout the entire internship, the involvement in various processes (often at the same time), the level of responsibility I received once proven myself, and much more.


When I first arrived at the office, I wanted to deepen my knowledge of what the processes we talked about during our courses really looked like (due diligence, pitch meetings, deal flow, etc.) on top of that sharpen my analytical skills. Looking back, I can say that the amount of experience I gained is massive and not something that I could have imagined back when I started.


Today, I am working as an Investment Analyst at the same office, thanks to this incredible opportunity given to us by Adelson school. So, for every student considering pursuing this experience

 

here are my tips for you:

 

  1. Get acquainted with the VCs/Accelerators you scored an interview with (their market, portfolio companies, team, etc.), as well as big deals that happened recently, and so on.
  2. Understand what you are looking for in your experience in a VC/Accelerator, there are a lot of types (by size, by industry, etc.) and it will affect your day-to-day there significantly.
  3. Try to be open about your goals, so the team you work/will work with could help you achieve these or help you focus elsewhere.
  4. The program takes up time from your schedule (minimum 16 hours per week), so be sure that you are ready to invest that time.
    If you have any questions, hesitations, or whatnot – it’s normal, and you are very welcome to reach out to me (email: hermanyaar@gmail.com).
    Best of luck!
    Yaar