Meet Our Fall Chicago Venture Fellows!

 
 

We are excited to introduce our Fall 2022 Chicago Venture Fellows! For the next four months, these aspiring venture capitalists will get a crash course in venture finance and learn from Chicago’s top VCs and tech leaders, all while sourcing deals to pitch to local investors. 

Chicago Venture Fellows (Fall 2022)

  • Helom Berhane (he/him), CTO at Dentologie

  • Caroline Celis (she/her), Senior Director, Global Business Development at G2

  • Mosea Esaias (he/him), Senior Associate Consultant at Tusk Holdings

  • Cecilia Fischer-Benitez (she/her), Program Manager at Latinas in Tech

  • Laura Gladfelter (she/her), Strategist at Health Care Service Corporation

  • Elina Kasman (she/her), Innovation and Commercialization Associate at Argonne National Laboratory

  • Jenn Kim (she/her), Account Executive at Okta

  • Eseosa Osaghae (he/him), Arts and Technology Investor at mHUB

  • Shawn Park (he/him), Founders Team Associate, P33 Chicago

  • Sam Ramil (he/him), MBA Candidate, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business

  • Monika Razdan (she/her), Aspiring Investor at Dipalo Ventures

  • Don Wilson (he/him), Head of Product, Claims at Clearcover

Throughout the month of September, we will be featuring our fellows individually through our Twitter and LinkedIn channels, so be sure to follow us to learn more about these aspiring VCs.

Chicago Venture Fellows launched this past summer with 10 fellows and culminated in a virtual Pitch Day on August 24, where they pitched promising startups to a virtual crowd of more than 50 investors. The program is generously supported by GET Cities, World Business Chicago and TeamWorking by TechNexus. 

This fall, we also welcome two new program partners: 1871, which will provide the fellows with access to their space and member programs, and VITALIZE Angels, which brings together accredited and non-accredited investors to invest in startups focused on the future of work.

Finally, we are delighted to announce our Fall 2022 mentors, who will be supporting our fellows during this program: Ian Adams (Evergreen Climate Innovations), Isabella Artiles (Endeavor), Peter Christman (Chicago Ventures), Kaitlyn Doyle (TechNexus Venture Collaborative), Colleen D. Egan (Illinois Science & Technology Coalition), Jonathan Ellis (Sandalphon Capital), Tim Grace (LongJump), Niharika Hanglem (Kaplan Institute at Illinois Institute of Technology), Shayna Harris (Supply Change Capital), Stephen Ross (HPA) and Tony Wilkins (Standing Oak Venture Partners).

For more information about Chicago Venture Fellows, contact Salvador Dueñas at sal@chicagoblend.org.

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