Introducing Our Spring 2023 Chicago Venture Fellows

We are delighted to introduce our Spring 2023 Chicago Venture Fellows! From February 1 to May 10, these aspiring venture capitalists will get a crash course in venture finance and learn from Chicago’s top VCs and tech leaders, all while gaining real-world experience sourcing and evaluating deal flow.

Chicago Venture Fellows (Spring 2023)

Adeel Afshar (he/him), Co-Founder, Halal Beauty Cosmetics

Leonard Blair Jr. (he/him), ISV Business Development, Salesforce

Devin Brown (he/him), Senior Consultant, West Monroe Partners

Jessie Chen (she/her), MBA Candidate, University of Chicago Booth School of Business

André Guardia (he/him), Venture Analyst, Kaplan Institute

Mijin Han (she/her), MBA Candidate, University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Cecilia Hernández (she/her), Software Engineer, Accenture 

Nilofar Khanbhai (she/her), Graduate Student, Northwestern University McCormick School of Engineering

Izer Martinez (he/him), Venture Associate, Skaleup Ventures

Rachel Sebald (she/her), Brand & Communications Manager, Techstars

These 10 individuals represent the third cohort of Chicago Venture Fellows since launching the program last year. Chicago:Blend will be featuring each of them individually this month through our social media channels, so be sure to follow us to learn more about these aspiring VCs.

To date, 27 fellows have participated in the fellowship, five (5) have been placed at VC firms and more than 280 startups have been sourced. This effort is generously supported by GET Cities, World Business Chicago, 1871, TeamWorking by TechNexus and VITALIZE Angels. 

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