Now that my internship and time in Berlin has come to an end, I am reflecting on the entirety of this experience. I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to develop my skills in venture capital and work in an extremely interesting environment. I’m also grateful to have had the opportunity to immerse myself in German culture and visit neighboring countries. This was the first time in my life that I’ve been in Europe, and it was really amazing. One area that I’ve noticed personal growth is in my awareness of other cultures. I’ve become more observant and respectful of my surroundings through noticing things that are normal in Germany, but maybe aren’t as common in the United States. I’ve also noticed some personal growth in my ability to be comfortable in unfamiliar spaces and cultures. One of the main reasons that I wanted to do a program in Germany, not knowing how to speak German at all prior, was that I believe putting oneself in uncomfortable situations with the opportunity to have new experiences is one of the best ways to grow as a person. I’ve become more confident in my ability to navigate unfamiliar areas, even when I don’t speak the language that many people around me do. In turn, this has made me more comfortable exploring and going to new places, like Poznan and Prague, to which I did weekend trips during my time here. 

In terms of academic growth, I’ve learned so much about venture capital during my time here. I learned how to source deals, using various databases of founders and startups, and I began developing my own sense of what might make a good startup, and what might not be worth spending my time looking into. This was certainly a learning curve from the start of my time working, but a process I became more efficient with and enjoyed more as my time went on. I also learned how to do a proper due diligence process for potential investments. I did this in both a shorter form, where I did brief research about a company, the background of the founder(s), its signs of commercial traction, and more. Sometimes, I then stopped looking into it if I found reasons it wouldn’t fit our investment thesis. Other times, when things looked good and prompted further investigation, I performed a very thorough due diligence process, including looking at company financials, reading every pitch deck, modeling market size and potential exit valuations for the investment in different scenarios, and talking to potential clients & partners for the startup including hedge funds, and reputable banks. I even looked into potential IP risks and did all sorts of due diligence that wouldn’t have occurred to me to think about prior to this summer. One very important thing that I learned from this process was that sometimes, an investment looks super appealing until you get very far into the process of due diligence, and then something can come up that makes it instantly clear that it’s not a good idea to invest. For me, this reinforced the importance of being extremely thorough with this process, and keeping an open mind for any red flags that might show up, even if a company initially seems like a great investment. 

In a professional sense, I’ve further developed my ability to communicate with colleagues across a wide range of seniority. I personally worked with everyone in the company, ranging from analyst, to associate, to even all the partners of the company. Beyond working with them, I would even sometimes get lunch one-on-one with the partners of the firm, and talk with them not about work, but on a more personal level. For me, this was an amazing experience to connect with everyone and realize that regardless of what level someone is in a company, everyone wants to have interesting conversations, and meet new people. Granted, my colleagues this summer were extremely welcoming and friendly, which I’m aware may not and likely won’t be the case at every company I work at over the course of my career. However, it has given me confidence in my ability to connect with people that at first, I may not expect to have much in common with. I plan to bring this open mindset with me to all my future professional endeavors, and even to my classes at Pitt, where I plan to try connecting more with my professors and learning from them.