Say hello to Chicago:Blend’s newest VC Fellows!

 
 

By: Salvador Dueñas, Director of Programs, Chicago:Blend


At Chicago:Blend, we’re saying goodbye to winter and getting an early jump on spring by welcoming the 10 newest members of our Chicago:Blend Venture Fellowship.

Fellows will be expanding their venture knowledge, community, and experience through the next four months. Each comes into the program with a unique background, sector expertise, and vision for the venture community. Check them out below and request intros to any directly via the link in their profiles!

We launched this four-month initiative in the summer of 2022 with support from GET Cities as a way to increase representation of historically marginalized groups in the venture capital industry. With our Spring ‘24 cohort starting today, we have officially surpassed 50 fellows and we are just getting started.

The applicant pool for our Spring ‘24 program was the largest and most competitive ever. Thank you to our team of external evaluators!

Throughout the month of February, we’ll be featuring each of our new VC Fellows individually, so make sure to follow us on LinkedIn and X for the latest.

Meet the new fellows IRL on Feb. 21!

If you are a VC investor, join our Chicago VC Happy Hour on Feb. 21 at TechNexus Venture Collaborative. This investor-only event is an opportunity to connect with our fellows and other angels and VCs in the Chicago:Blend community. The event is free, but registration and approval is required (sorry, no founders, no service providers, and no pitching).
 

About the program

Since this program began, more than 80% of our alums who applied for VC jobs have landed a role post-program, including:

  • Demetrius Palmer (Fall ‘23), Investor, Reach Capital

  • Devin Brown (Spring ‘23), Associate, TechNexus Venture Collaborative

  • Rachel Sebald (Spring ‘23), Manager of Marketing & Communications, Evergreen Climate Innovations

  • Shawn Park (Fall ‘22), Associate, Chicago Ventures

  • Grisel Hernandez (Summer ‘22), Senior Analyst, Chingona Ventures


As part of the curriculum, we require our fellows to source deals to pitch to VC firms. In less than two years, our VC fellows have collectively spoken to 850 companies, 10 of which have received venture capital funding thanks to the direct support of our fellows. Furthermore, of these 10 companies that have raised venture, 70% had at least one female founder or a founder of color. 

We have also onboarded more partners over the years, whose support has been critical to the growth of this program, including VITALIZE Angels, 1871, TeamWorking by TechNexus, World Business Chicago, and CDW.

Chicago:Blend