Student Deal Scouts at UC Berkeley

A comprehensive list of VCs present on campus

One trend I am noticing on Cal’s campus is the growing number of student Deal Scouts, often also known as Brand Ambassadors or Campus Liaison. For those that are unfamiliar, Deal Scouts are students who are well-integrated within the school’s entrepreneurship ecosystem and selected by venture funds to serve as their eyes and ears on campus. The idea is that schools like Berkeley are a breeding ground for talented entrepreneurs and engineers, and VCs would greatly benefit from keeping a tab on these student talents who may become the mastermind behind the next big thing.

This makes sense at Cal because we have founded the most number of companies out of any undergraduate institution, the second highest number of entrepreneurs (only behind Stanfurd 😡), and boast founders who have gone to start amazing companies like Apple, Cloudera, Zynga, and Warby Parker.

Source: PitchBook 2017 Universities Report

For student entrepreneurs, this represents a major opportunity. Now it is easier than ever for you or your startup to be noticed by investors. Instead of cold-emailing an associate or partner to get a firm’s attention, you can reach out to a fellow student who is likely to be much more receptive and willing to help make a connection. After all, giving student entrepreneurs the time of day is quite literally the jobs of these scouts.

Below is the a list of all the current Berkeley students (undergraduate & graduate) who are working for a VC firm in a Deal Scout role.

If you’re a student Deal Scout and wish to be included in this directory, please fill out this super short Google Form and I can add you ASAP.

For full-disclosure, I am a Deal Scout for Charles River Ventures (CRV) and interested in helping student founders in anyway I can. My email is [email protected]

If you’re a student interested in entrepreneurship but not sure where to start, check out my previous post, A Student’s Guide to UC Berkeley’s Startup Ecosystem

Also a quick s/o to my roommate Matt Yao for helping me with the research :)