Meet Harlem Capital’s Summer 2023 Interns

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Harlem Capital Community,

Please join us in welcoming our Summer Intern Class: Kenneth Brown, Priscilla Russo, Nina Prabhu, Frankie Lopez & Alison Montenegro. They are joined by 2 returning fellows: Gitika Pahwa (Winter 2023) & Soumya Tejam (Fall 2021). 

ABOUT THE INTERN PROGRAM

Harlem Capital’s internship is a 10-week program that occurs 3 times per year, with winter, summer, and fall cohorts. Each cohort consists of 6 interns and 1-2 fellows (returning interns). Interns are tasked with weekly deal screens, industry analyses, and key value-add projects over the course of the internship. Our interns are what we like to call our ‘secret sauce’ as they allow us to accomplish projects outside of regular deal work that expands the diverse ecosystem. Notably, our Principal, Gabby Cazeau, and Senior Associate, Nicole DeTommaso have come from this program.

Some notable projects done with the help of our interns:

ABOUT THIS COHORT

The 5 applicants were chosen from a pool of 1,119 applications, marking a 0.4% acceptance rate.

This intern class has 1 undergraduate student, 3 MBA students, and 1 full-time employee.  The current undergraduate & MBA students hail from Vanderbilt University, Harvard Business School, Haas School of Business, and Stanford GSB. The class is 60% Latino, 20% Black, and 20% Asian as well as 60% first-generation college students and 60% first-generation American.
Additionally, 40% of this class applied more than once, with 1 applying three times and 1 applying four times. In fact, at every stage of the Summer 2023 interview process, 40% of individuals applied to the program more than once. We appreciate the determination and loyalty to HCP and we reward those who reapply.

A DIVE INTO THE SUMMER ‘23 APPLICANT POOL

Let’s take a look at the demographics of the Summer ‘23 applicant pool. Alongside race & gender data, we also started tracking some other important diversity data stats in our application (optional for candidates). 

The Summer ‘23 applicant pool was 41% Asian, 28% Black, and 10% Latino as well as 31% first-generation American and 32% first-generation college students.

The applicant pool was 40% women or non-binary individuals and 13% identified as LGBTQ+. 

Harlem Capital takes a lot of pride in having a diverse applicant pool not only for race and gender, but also amongst other areas of identity and life. We continue to prove to the ecosystem that there is no pipeline problem.

AN INSIDE LOOK: BEING AN HCP INTERN

During the 10-week program, interns are focused on two main tasks: (1) Deal work & (2) An Individual project.

Deal work includes a few calls with founders every week or so (the sourcing side) along with analysis to understand prospective startup investments (the diligence side). The diligence process is in-depth and can look like putting together memos, market research, building models in Excel around the potential revenue of a company, or identifying and sizing up other startups doing something similar.

For the individual project, you are paired with a full-time HCP team member who will work with you each week to achieve an output. Projects vary but can include reports, market research, portco support, newsletter help, and more (see above for past intern projects). To read more about the intern experience, check out A Day in the Life as a Harlem Capital Intern.

Most importantly the internship is meant to be a learning experience. Not only do we want to give interns hands-on work, we also want to provide resources on all areas of the VC ecosystem. As a result, we have the interns read through our curated syllabus – The Harlem Capital Syllabus: A Primer on Venture Capital.

CONCLUSION

We have now had 99 interns over 17 classes with 11,849 applicants, equating to an overall 0.8% acceptance rate. Given we can’t provide opportunities to the majority that apply, we are offering access to our HCP talent platform to all applicants that receive a first round interview. If you are a VC firm looking to get access to top diverse talent, please join our Talent Collective. 

Joining this invite-only community will give you access to:

  • Top diverse talent profiles that include past experience & what they are looking for next
  • Pre-vetted candidates who have interviewed for the HCP internship
  • Request convos from desired candidates directly to fill open roles

Our Fall 2023 application is now open until July 5th, APPLY or SHARE.   

Regards,

The Harlem Capital Team

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