1. 1
SPRING 2018 NEWSLETTER
Twitter: @VentureFellows www.venturefellows.com
A Word from Jim Nolen
These are exciting times for Venture
Fellows. We started officially holding
class in the new Robert B Rowling Hall at
the end of March and we have a great
view of the UT tower from our 5th floor
classroom.
The VF Class of 2018 that will graduate this May set
a record in the number of fellows who received permanent
offers in the private equity industry. Andrew Alspaugh is
headed to Paine Schwartz in San Francisco to work with
former VF Spencer Swayze; Michael Massad will be at
Elsewhere Partners; Ricky Garcia landed at Next Coast
Ventures; Jon Broscious is going to Social Starts in San
Francisco; Mason Rathe leveraged his entertaining weekly
VC newsletter into a position at Live Oak Capital; Brendan
O’Hara converted his internship into a permanent position
at TRT Holdings (Robert Rowling’s Family Office) in
Dallas; and Cole Bonner will assist former VFs Rajiv “New
Daddy” Bala and Charlie Plauche over at S3
Ventures. Elsewhere, Next Coast, and Live Oak are all
former Austin Venture partners who have raised their
own funds. The rest of the Class of 2018 secured some
pretty sweet offers as well as VF Director Josh Liss is going
to Google and others are headed to Amazon, Apple,
Barclays, and Evercore.
And the Class of 2019 is off to a roaring start as
well. The Fellows elected their first female Director, Katie
Herbek, who was also the first woman to run for the
position. Katie teamed up with current Fellows Ming Liu,
Maureen O’Connor and Devin Mattson along with last
year’s Fellows Jon Broscious and Ashley Hemphill to win
the regional VCIC competition in Nashville and then went
on to win Entrepreneurs Choice at National VCIC at UNC
(our first trip to Nationals in a while).
“VF was my best decision
throughout my MBA
experience. No other school
has access to the venture
capital community quite like
UT, where all of the top funds
are involved in the program.”
-Mason Rathe, VF ‘18
In This Issue
• Message from Jim Nolen
• Introduction to the Class
of 2019
• Success in Wharton
Buyout Competition
• Spring Trek Wrap-up
• Accolades at VCIC
“From the start, Venture
Fellows gave me a network of
colleagues and mentors to
rely on for advice. This
network proved invaluable
when searching for a full-
time position and will
continue to support me
through the inevitable highs
and lows of becoming a
successful investor.”
-Ricky Garcia, VF ‘18
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VF Class of 2019 and Partner Firm:
Nico Gayle (Blue Sage Capital)
John Ratliff (Cavu Ventures)
Maureen O’Connor (Wild Basin Investments)
Drew Daniller-Varghese (Next Coast Ventures)
John Grellner (S3 Ventures)
Justin Pitcock (UTIMCO Natural Resources)
Colin Bozarth (SpindleTop Capital)
Matt Draheim (Stafford Capital Partners)
Peter Fenelon (Strattam Capital)
Blair Madole (Silverton)
Devin Mattson (ATX Seed)
Shale Gulbas (AV Capital)
Aishwarya Nagarajan (Mercury Fund)
Ming Liu (Elsewhere Partners)
Wesley Gottesman (Brand Foundry)
Katie Herbek (True Wealth Ventures)
Heberto Alanis (Whole Foods)
Brendan Scher (Escalate Capital)
A Word from Jim (continued)
VF also hosted the regional VCIC competition at UT that was won by Rice University who
went on to win third at Nationals. We missed our McCombs VCIC team that was competing at
Chapel Hill while the other fellows (and I) went on their NYC Trek to see Union Square Ventures,
MSD Capital, KKR, and Greycroft Ventures. We had an VF alumni happy hour in NYC and were
pleased to see former VFs Natalie Barnard, Aaron Schoen and Jamie Nissan as well as several of
my former Small Business students in attendance. Jonathan Spillman continues to coordinate
quarterly Austin VF alumni happy hours which he has moved from Wednesday nights to
Thursday nights to try and get more people in attendance who travel during the week. Now that
many former VF’s are starting to become parents, this is a great opportunity to get away from
the kids for a couple of hours and re-live your think and drink days.
Venture Fellows is capitalizing on Austin’s entrepreneurial success. Not only did we have
more requests for interns than we had fellows, we added several new partner firms as
well. Brand Foundry focuses on CPG companies; True Wealth Ventures and Stafford Capital
partners focus on women-owned businesses and social impact investing; Mercury Fund in
Houston returned to take a fellow; and AV Capital and ATX Seed Capital took interns for the first
time. Hicks, Muse, Tate and Furst Center for Private Equity Finance hosted their highest
attended private equity conference in February. The Finance Department introduced a new
FinTech course that was oversubscribed, and several sold out blockchain conferences have been
hosted by both McCombs and student groups, including VF partnering with the Graduate
Blockchain Society.
I want to thank all the VF alums and partner firms for their support of the program. For
all of you that come back as speakers, mentor the current fellows, network with our alumni and
open the doors of opportunity for our students, I hope you can see how successful your efforts
are. And finally, congratulations to Matt Lyons and all the former Andrews Kurth attorneys and
staff who have supported Venture Fellows for so long in your new firm, Shearman and Sterling.
The Class of 2019
The Class of 2019 includes 18 students who are
working hard to continue building the VF brand.
The VF Class of 2019 heard from Manoj Saxena about AI and
ethics during the spring speaker series.
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Venture Fellows Named Runner-up in
Wharton Buyout Competition
The Venture Fellows class of 2019 fielded a team composed of Matt
Draheim, Peter Fenelon, Nico Gayle, and Justin Pitcock to compete in
this year’s Wharton Private Equity Case Competition on February 23 in
New York. Contestants from 25 top-ranked MBA programs came
together at the Penn Club where judges hailed from several New York
private equity firms including Court Square, Centerbridge, Atairos, HIG
Capital, Apex Capital, and others.
As first-year MBA students with little background in finance
(only Nico could claim applicable experience), the team took a learning
approach to the competition. Each team was given the same scenario
and asked to give a recommendation whether to buyout Under Armour
and at what
Spring
Speakers
The spring speaker
series featured the
following
distinguished guests:
• Manoj Saxena
• Sloane Child
• Tom Ball
• Brad Johl
• Charlie Plauche
• Bryan Burkhart
• Kyle Reesing
• Reed Hatch
• Tony Schell
• Rajiv Bala
• Cole Arlege
• Jim Offerdahl
• Brian Bordainick
• Brian Dillavou
“I only invest in glass
eaters.”
- Tom Ball
Next Coast Ventures
Fall Trek
The Venture Fellows
class of 2019 will
visit the Bay Area in
the fall. For SF
Venture Fellow
alumni, be on the
lookout for an
invitation to the
happy hour (and
please reach out
with suggestions).
This year’s class is
looking forward to
making connections
on the West Coast!
and at what price. The VF team spent a weekend strategizing and
modeling.
Ultimately, the hard work paid off. The team presented to a panel
of judges first thing in the morning and learned by lunchtime that they
made the finals where four teams were selected. The finals consisted of
a presentation for a separate panel of judges with the other teams from
the competition in attendance. The McCombs team was the final
presentation of the day and, 1. Oxford Saïd
2. Texas McCombs
3. MIT Sloan
4. Dartmouth Tuck
after a long deliberation (in which
the judges later said was highly
contested between the top two), the
results came in:
The team won a combined $1,500 and can still claim to be the
National Champions…not bad for a couple of military guys, a Chevron
engineer, and a heavily relied upon former private investment
professional.
Venture
Fellows’
2019
Wharton
Buyout
Competition
team (from
left to right:
Peter
Fenelon,
Nico Gayle,
Matt
Draheim,
and Justin
Pitcock)
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Venture Fellows Take on NYC
Spring Trek 2018
Despite the very un-spring-like weather, the Venture Fellow
Class of 2019 travelled to NYC for the weekend, starting Thursday, May
5, for the Spring Trek. The trip started Thursday with the class joining
the McCombs Business School-NYC alumni organization for a happy
hour at Spaniard in lower Manhattan.
The following day, the class visited four firms: Union Square
Ventures, MSD Capital, KKR, and Greycroft. At Union Square Ventures,
the class went in-depth into the possibilities of blockchain and its ability
to transform the economy. At MSD Capital, an investment office
managing the wealth of a billionaire family, the class gained insight into
the investment culture and philosophy of a firm that focuses on cash
preservation and contributions to a charitable foundation. KKR brought
conversations on unique employment options within large private
equity firms and Greycroft delivered a discussion on the importance of
operational experience when trying to add value to venture capital.
The remainder of Friday was filled with the NYC Venture
Fellows alumni happy hour at Monarch Rooftop Bar and dinner at Park
Avenue Spring. Overall, the trip went smoothly and everyone had a
blast. Thank you to all of our hosts, and Drew Daniller-Varghese and
Heberto Alanis and everyone who lent a hand in coordinating the visits.
The next trek will take the VF Class of 2019 to San Francisco in the fall.
We would like to thank the teams, entrepreneurs, judges, and student
hosts for a successful event.
VF Co-Hosts
Blockchain
Roundtable
Together with the
McCombs Graduate
Blockchain Society,
Venture Fellows
welcomed three panelists
to discuss the possibilities
and complications
surrounding investment
in blockchain and crypto
currencies. Jon Broscious,
VF ’18, moderated the
panel consisting of Kyle
Samani (Multicoin
Capital), Hall Martin (Ten
Capital Group), and
Jonathan Kaplan (Numeris
Capital).
Brad Burnham from Union Square Ventures stands with VF
Spring Trek attendees after he shared his insights into
investing in disruptive technology.
Special Venture Fellows menu
at Park Avenue Spring
“Do the right thing.”
– Brad Burnham, Union Square Ventures
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Venture Capital Investment Competition
VF Hosts and Team is Selected as National Entrepreneurs Choice
In February, Venture Fellows hosted the Central Region Finals for the 2018 UNC Venture
Capital Investment Competition (“VCIC”). The VP’s of Marketing pulled in an all-star team of
judges including Brad Bentz (ATX Seed), James Brown (Arena Growth Partners), Chris Hall
(Escalate Capital), Matt Cohen (Capital Factory), Kip McClanahan (Silverton Partners), Rosa
McCormick (Wild Basin Investments), and Mitun Ranka (Spindletop Capital). The judges
evaluated students from six MBA programs as they performed due diligence, developed a term
sheet, and negotiated with three different start-ups all in one day.
Later that month, the McCombs Venture Fellows won first place at the Southeast Regional
Finals hosted at Vanderbilt. They competed against other top schools including Virginia, Duke,
UNC, Emory, and American. In April, the team competed at the Global Finals of VCIC at UNC
Kenan-Flagler, with 13 other regional champions. McCombs won the “Entrepreneur’s Choice”
award, labeled by some judges as “that day’s most difficult award to win.” A huge congratulation
to our VCIC team.
VF team from left: Jon Broscious, Ashley Hemphill,
Toolkite CEO Eric Blum, Katie Herbek, Maureen
O’Connor, and Ming Liu.
Stay Connected as an Alum
Venture Fellows – Spring 2018 Newsletter
• As part of plan to increase interaction in both the alumni base and between alumni and the current
class, a new section of the website will be available in 2018. A password protected section of the
website will contain the alumni database that everyone has done a great job at building over the past
year. Look for the new section to be available in the “alumni” section of the website soon.
• Follow our photos and event posts on twitter: @VentureFellows
• Look for the class of 2019 to be in your city - This summer the fellows will be spread out in Texas and
coast to coast. In the Fall, VF ’19 will be in San Francisco and possibly Denver.