This week was my first week at Vireo Ventures. Before going to work I was extremely nervous about meeting everyone because they are all much older than me and at different stages of life. I also had no inclination as to what I would actually be doing once I started my internship. As a finance and accounting student, venture capital (VC) isn’t something we learn about in depth, so I was definitely nervous about not having much of an educational background in it. Despite my nerves, I had a wonderful first day. Everyone in the office was very welcoming and friendly. It is typical to go to lunch together every day at Vireo, and it was nice to see my coworkers in a non-work environment. I will also acknowledge how overwhelming my first day was. When I arrived I immediately met my supervisor, Sandro, and we went over some things in terms of what I would be working on and expectations in the workplace. He gave me my first assignment which was to find important information on potential investments. Soon after, I was invited to join a call with a potential client for Vireo. I was honestly somewhat shocked that I would be involved in this call as it was my first day, but at Vireo they want you to experience as much as you can, so this means you start asap. After this meeting, I was also invited to a team meeting where we discussed future potential investments and other important topics for the week. Despite being very confused, it was nice to be included in everyday operational activities. Even though I was really nervous, and slightly confused, my first day went really well. I am very thankful for the team I joined as they are all very welcoming and understanding. After my first day, things seemed to go a little smoother. On Wednesday I was given a crash course about VC. My coworker, Mischa, drew a diagram to help me better understand its complex layers: limited partner, general partner, and targets. After this impromptu lesson, I felt I was finally understanding what was going on in the workplace. In addition to my crash course, I was also getting to know the team better as well as new projects I would be taking on. During lunch we talked about childhood staple lunches, and my coworkers could not believe how many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches I ate as a kid 😂 (sadly, they have never experienced the joy of a pb&j). We also talked about films and everyone’s preferences and honestly I felt like I got to know the team on a more personal level. My other supervisor, Lou, also gave me some new assignments I would be working on during my time at Vireo. One of my new assignments is to find angel investors for our firm. Our fundraising phase of VC is coming to a close, so now is the time where we need to find as many angel investors as possible. This involved linkedin profile searches, cold calling, and cold emailing. The summer long project I will be working on, and the one that excites me the most, is my deepdive into green energy financing. During this deepdive I will research different startups in this sector and divide them into verticals (vertical is a sub-sector), analyse them, and decide if they are a strong investment for our firm. I have always been interested in sustainable financing, so I am very excited to start this project next week. Even though it was my first week at my internship, I already have multiple tasks to complete, and in order to be successful, managing my time is extremely important. Because my tasks cannot fully be monetized, as there will always be more companies to analyze, more angel investors to find, and more research to do in green energy financing, it is important to manage my time according to tasks. Because we are on a tight schedule finding angel investors, I prioritize this first and dedicate the entire morning to contacting different people. This allows me to focus on this one task while also allotting time for my other responsibilities. After lunch, I allot 2 1/2 hours to my other respective projects so I can spend a significant amount of time on both. This system has seemed to work for me thus far as my tasks don’t seem to have a specific “end-point”, however, this may change as my time at Vireo continues. In addition to a great first week at Vireo, a couple of students from Pitt and I went to see the Berlin Wall Memorial this morning. It was strange to think that not that long ago, this wall divided the entire city. It was very powerful and sad to see the memorial for people who lost their lives trying to escape the eastern part of Berlin (140 people). Despite the difficulty of the memorial, it was very interesting to see the wall and learn more about the history behind it.
