Venture Fellows Program

Learn to think like an investor and understand the operating realities of a founder.

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Cole Hagen and Afsaneh Razi observing the December 2024 cohort of the Capital Readiness Program

The Venture Fellows Program is a 12-month fellowship in early-stage life sciences investing for graduate students and early-career professionals who are eager to learn by doing.

You’ll evaluate real deals, support founders, and build both the analytical rigor of an investor and a feel for the operating realities of a founder.

Apply

Applications close: July 24, 2026
Fellowship begins: September 7, 2026

What You’ll Walk Away With 

  • A portfolio of real, showable work: investment memos, market maps, and founder-facing deliverables 
  • A published section of your cohort’s investment thesis on aging and longevity
  • Direct relationships with early-stage founders and practicing venture investors
  • A clearer answer to whether your path runs toward investing, operating, or researching

Program Structure 

Fellows work 20 to 23 hours per week, on-site across four areas. You’ll start by learning how deals are assessed and take on more ownership as the year progresses.

Fellowship start date: Tuesday, September 7, 2026

Investment Evaluation

  • Write investment memos on early-stage life-science, MedTech, and health tech deals 
  • Sit in on team evaluation meetings to learn how deals are assessed   
  • Take on more of each evaluation over time: building the analysis, sourcing information, and reaching a recommendation 

Market Research

  • Cover an assigned area of the market (for example, gene therapy delivery, point-of-care diagnostics, or behavioral health software) and become the team’s working expert on it 
  • Produce monthly research notes and maintain a market map 
  • Interview founders and practitioners in your coverage area 

Company Engagement

  • Take on scoped projects with Science Center portfolio companies: customer discovery, fundraising materials, partnership strategy, or board materials 
  • Deliver a defined output for each engagement 
  • Develop an operator’s lens alongside an investor’s judgment 

Portfolio & Alumni Engagement

  • Hold quarterly check-ins with assigned alumni companies and track progress over time 
  • Keep each company’s record current in the team’s CRM and flag time-sensitive issues 
  • Deliver a short written update each week 

Capstone: Emerging Fund Thesis

As a cohort, you’ll build a complete investment thesis as if launching an emerging venture fund focused on the aging and longevity market. You’ll define the fund’s strategy and point of view, draw on each fellow’s coverage area, and present the finished thesis to a review board of investors and subject-matter experts at the close of the year.

Program Benefits

  • Paid part-time W2 Fellowship
  • On-site experience at the Science Center at 3675 Market Street
  • Mentorship from the Science Center investment team and access to our investor network, representing $1.35B in venture capital

Eligibility

To be considered, applicants must meet the following requirements: 

  • Graduate student or early-career professional 
  • Bachelor of Science and completion of or current enrollment in an MBA, MPH, MS, JD, or PhD program required
  • Able to commit 20 to 23 hours per week a week on-site at the Science Center located at 3675 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 
  • Authorized to work in the United States for the full length of the fellowship 

Apply

Applications close July 24, 2026.

Program FAQs

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Supporters 

The Venture Fellows Program is supported by a grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) Research.

Venture Fellows have access to facilities at CIC Labs + Innovation Campus in Philadelphia.