The first batch of students running the Wingman Campus Fund consists of 18 members distributed over the campuses of ETHZ, EPFL and HSG. They were selected out of more than 110 applicants. The students will receive some training from Wingman Ventures, will be mentored by over 30 VC investors from Europe (including Northzone, Accel, Creandum, Atomico and Speedinvest) and will be responsible to select the 15 student-led start-ups that Wingman Campus Fund supports on a yearly basis. The trainees will spend 6 to 8 hours per week on the program during two academic semesters, each of which is about 12-week long. This sums up to over 150 hours in total.
The students follow a strict and defined process to select the start-up projects. Two individual meetings with the project leader (1 student-1 start-up) culminates in a weekly 'selection committee' at which all the students listen to a final pitch of the start-up project and take a collective decision on whether to select the project. At each stage of the selection process, the students need to validate a certain number of criteria about the start-up project.
“At the end of the 1-year fellowship, the student Partners will have acquired the skills to join and impact the tech space, be it as startup founders, venture capital investors, scale-up employees, or policy-makers — and later, grow into leaders within those fields”, comments Edouard Treccani, Head of the Wingman Campus Fund Program.
The Wingman Campus Fund is looking for additional students to join their 1-year fellowship from Spring 2022 on. More information on the website of the fund.
(Press release / SK)