Leonis Capital Research Fellowship - Summer 2024

Application deadline: June 21, 2024.

Leonis Capital is a research-driven venture capital fund based in Silicon Valley. We invest in three broad categories of companies in AI: AI-first enterprise SaaS, AI-powered vertical SaaS (e.g., healthcare, finance, legal tech), and ML/LLM developer tools.

We take pride in our research-driven investment approach which involves conducting thorough technical and market research to form concrete investment theses. Our research fellowship is an initiative to teach our methodology and knowledge of startups and venture capital (VC).

About the Program

The Leonis Capital Research Fellowship is a bridge for brilliant researchers and engineers to transition into roles in the startup and VC world. It is designed to help technical minds understand how startups and VC work while helping them leverage their research skills to identify startup opportunities. The fellowship contains five modules that closely mirror our team's research-driven investment process.

Who We're Looking For

The program is ideal for students in advanced degree programs (PhD or Masters) in technical fields like computer science, mathematics, or physics. It can also work well for software engineers and technical product managers with an interest in research, startups and VC. But above all, we seek candidates with a strong entrepreneurial drive and intellectual curiosity.

Program Details

Before joining the program, fellows will propose a research area they are interested in (e.g., LLM developer tools, AI x healthcare, AI x robotics). The program will involve the following components that reflect our internal investment process:

1. Identifying a research area or sector in the AI startup ecosystem.

2. Conducting in-depth research on your sector of interest and presenting your findings.

3. Developing an investment thesis based on your research.

4. Reaching out to and meeting founders in this area to further understand the research topic

5. Participating in investment committee meetings and discussions (and maybe even making your first VC investment!).

At the end of the program, we are open to extending full-time or part-time job offers to exceptional candidates (with visa sponsorship) or helping them find full-time roles at our portfolio companies.

The program will run from July 1, 2024 to August 30th, 2024.

The expected time commitment is 10-20 hours per week. We prefer candidates who can work in person in the Bay Area but can accommodate remote work.

If you are interested in research, startups, and VC, please fill out the Leonis Capital Research Fellowship application form before June 21st, 2024. Applications will be processed on a rolling basis and we encourage you to apply early. Feel free to reach out to partners@leoniscap.com if you have any questions!