Harlem Capital Community,

Please join us in welcoming our Winter Intern Class: Daniel Paredes, Tori Orr, Patrick Mendes, Sophia Augustine, Cécile Tang & Gitika Pahwa. They are joined by 2 returning fellows: Raquel Scott (Summer 2021) & Katalina Su (Fall 2022). 

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 expand 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:

• 128 LATAM Women Founded Startups Raised $4B+ in 2021
• 870 Black and Latino Startups That Have Raised $1M+ of Venture
• How are Black & Latina Women Investors Breaking into VC?
• More Equity: Game Changers Series
• HCP Newsletter: Road to 1,000

ABOUT THIS COHORT

The 6 applicants were chosen from a pool of 1,027 applications, marking a 0.6% acceptance rate.

This intern class has 3 undergraduate students and 3 MBA students.  The current undergraduate & MBA students hail from University of Southern California, Brown University, Pomona College, Columbia Business School and The Wharton School. The class is 50% Latino, 33% Asian and 17% Black, as well as 50% first-generation college students. In addition, 17% identify as LGBTQ+.

Additionally, 67% of this class applied more than once, with 2 applying two times,  2 applying three times, and 1 applying five times. In fact, at every stage of the Winter 2023 interview process, we over-indexed individuals who have reapplied to the program. We appreciate the determination and loyalty to HCP and we reward those who reapply.

A DIVE INTO THE WINTER ‘23 APPLICANT POOL

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

The Winter ‘23 applicant pool was 38% first-generation American and 38% first-generation college students. The applicant pool was 37% women or non-binary individuals and 12% identified as LGBTQ+. 

Harlem Capital takes a lot of pride in having a diverse applicant pool. 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 94 interns over 16 classes with 10,730 applicants, equating to an overall 0.9% 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 Summer 2023 application is now open until February 7th, APPLY or SHARE.