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2019 Dominique Lau, Partner ripple venturesA Toronto-based VC firm was looking for ways to help startup founders and underrepresented groups of VCs. his answer is RippleX Fellowship Program, aims to educate and mentor graduate and undergraduate students with a focus on entrepreneurship and entry into the VC industry. For that, there must be 50% gender diversity and at least 50% of his BIPOC in each cohort.
Portrait of a young business team standing in the office.
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Since its inception, the program has evolved while staying true to its mission of serving underrepresented students. For example, we recently tweaked our admissions process to make the system fairer. And last year, RippleX launched a separate fund for startups launched by students and other founders not participating in the program. “DEI is really in our DNA,” says Nazuk Thakkar, his program manager who is also an associate at Ripple Ventures.
Two-track cohort
The RippleX Fellowship Program for undergraduate and graduate students in North America is offered three times a year during the semester and consists of two courses. One focuses on entrepreneurship and the other on becoming a venture capitalist. This remote program has 25 students in each cohort and includes bi-weekly discussions, workshops with experts, and hands-on projects. Topics for would-be founders include product his market fit and term sheet basics. Those who want to become VCs learn, among other things, how to evaluate startups and how to enter the industry.
There are also free public courses open to anyone, including non-students and those living outside of North America.
new fund
In 2022, the fellowship launched another fund, the Fellow Fund, which invests $25,000 to $50,000 in select student startups, depending on the stage of the company. It’s also open to first-time and undervalued founders who aren’t in the program. 50% of the investment will be allocated to founders who belong to an undervalued group.
So far, the fund has made two investments in startups launched by entrepreneurs who have taken public courses. Artemisdevelops data modeling tools for businesses. give up waitinghas a platform that assists doctors in their daily tasks with the goal of reducing burnout.
Fine-tuning the application process
Over the past year, the program has also improved its applicant screening process. For example, her four-person review team, all alumni, is made up exclusively of people of color, and her gender diversity is 50%. Additionally, reviewers do not consider school or her GPA. And make sure every applicant is judged by each team member at different stages of the process.
Tucker said the 13 cohorts offered so far have more than 1,000 students in total, with an 80 percent ethnic diversity rate and 50 percent gender diversity. The program also helped the underserved founder raise nearly $50 million in VC funding for her 50 students from underserved backgrounds. We were able to land her a VC role, she says.
Tucker joined the cohort in 2021, determined to get into venture capital while a student at Queen’s University’s Smith School of Business in Kingston, Ontario. Now, in addition to helping run the fellowship program, she is also her VC at Ripple Ventures.