VC fellowship graduation

Congratulations to our Spring 2024 Cohort!

Congratulations to all 21 Fusion Fellows who graduated from our 2024 Venture Fellowship Program! This was our third year offering the program, and we were fortunate to receive more than 400 applicants. We could not be prouder of this talented cohort, a highly diverse group with a broad range of technical, scientific and quantitative backgrounds.

The program is designed for working professionals in technical roles and students pursuing advanced degrees in technical domains, with the goal of helping them explore the world of venture capital and startups. Managing Partner Lu Zhang founded the program in 2022, and Partner David Gerster led the program in 2023 and 2024.

We designed this program to demystify the opaque world of VC, distilling the key concepts into a rigorous twelve-week course. We covered deal sourcing and due diligence; how venture capital compares to other “alternative” investments; the mechanics of preferred stock and convertible notes; term sheet negotiation; and the nuances of how founders and investors think about dilution in the context of a financing. In the words of one fellow, “The Fusion Venture Fellowship is a cheat code for VC.”

We also designed this program to function as an apprenticeship, with hands-on exercises in deal sourcing and screening. This proved to be one of the most popular features of the program, providing an opportunity for future investors to learn by doing.

Fusion Fund is committed to building a talent pipeline to establish the next generation of venture investors. Congratulations again to all our Fellows for their dedication and curiosity throughout this intensive twelve-week journey!

  • Asmi Chakraborty

    Massachusetts Life Sciences Center- Manager

    Harvard Medical School

  • Boxuan Zhong

    Instagram - Tech Lead

    North Carolina State University

  • Da Zhang

    UCSF - Postdoctoral Researcher

    University of Miami

  • Danqing Zhang

    Stealth Startup - Co-founder/CTO

    University of California, Berkeley

  • Elena Jia

    Airtable - Software Engineer

    University of California, Berkeley

  • Jason Lin

    Google DeepMind - Research Scientist

    Stanford University

  • Jay Patel

    Labelbox - Product Lead

    Stanford University

  • Jeffrey Chen

    Sutter Mills-Peninsula Medical Center - Attending Emergency Physician

    Harvard Medical School

  • Jin Xie

    Grail - Bioinformatics Scientist

    Stanford University

  • Jingkun Zhang

    NVIDIA - Senior Software Engineer

    University of Washington, Seattle

  • Justin Lee

    University of California, Berkeley - Graduate Student Researcher

    University of California, Berkeley

  • Lu Han

    Microsoft - Product Manager

    Stanford University

  • Makenna Pennel

    Starshot Capital - PhD Associate

    Stanford University

  • Meng Tang

    Uber - Senior Machine Learning Engineer

    Stanford University

  • Rachel Li

    Apple - Hardware Technology Lead

    Stanford University

  • Tristan Yeung

    AGM International Group - Biotech Consultant

    Harvard Medical School

  • Varuna Chander

    Office of Technology Transfer, Stanford - Business Development and Marketing Intern

    Stanford University

  • Verona Teo

    Stanford University - Research Fellow

    University of California, Berkeley

  • Wenming Zhang

    Stanford Healthcare Design Challenge - Data Lead

    Stanford University

  • Xiaobo Zhang

    Google Gemini - Tech Lead/Manager

    Stanford University

  • Yiwen Yuan

    Kumo AI - Software Engineer

    Carnegie Mellon University

 
 

  • “I want to express my sincere appreciation for the exceptional experience I've had during this fellowship. The insights gained have been invaluable.”

  • “I wanted to convey my gratitude for your leadership and guidance throughout the fellowship. In particular, your approachability invited each of us to ask questions and engage with the discussions freely.”

  • “I value how this fellowship joins professionals across an array of backgrounds and cultivates an open learning environment. Upon concluding this engagement, I feel more confident in my understanding of the VC history, ecosystem-wide approaches and nuances and in my ability to navigate a career transition into the field.”

  • “The course was well-structured and the mentors were amazing. As a practicing physician with limited business experience, this program was great to understand the basics of the tech startup and early-stage VC environment.”

  • “Thank you so much for an extremely informative series – this has been a fantastic fellowship experience.”

  • “The Fusion Fellowship is a cheat code for VC.”