Founded in 1999 at Columbia and NY, the InSITE Fellowship’s mission is to create a community of passionate leaders who share a passion for entrepreneurship and have the desire, ability, and network to support innovative companies and projects around the nation. InSITE has expanded to include chapters at Harvard, MIT, Georgetown, Stanford, Berkeley, U Penn and Wash U.
InSITE fellows are talented graduate students from a diverse range of backgrounds. They are connected with hand-picked, high-potential emerging companies in a variety of industries for semester-long projects that contribute to real growth to the companies. Fellows meet with founders and company leaders to identify key challenges and growth opportunities and set deliverables for these projects.
Fellows join consulting-style teams, which work with InSITE-selected startups on crucial problems. Companies span a range of industries, including:
software and hardware
healthcare and life sciences
cleantech
enterprise services
education
consumer goods
entertainment + media
social ventures
financial services
Projects also vary, depending on the individual company’s most pressing need. In the past, fellows have worked on projects centered on the formation of pitch materials, marketing and brand development, product development, consumer research, and pricing strategy, among others.
In addition to the consulting projects, fellows have the opportunity to participate in treks to New York City and Silicon Valley. During these treks, fellows from each chapter meet with startups and venture capital firms. Typically, there are InSITE alumni working at each startup and venture capital firm. The alumni often recruit current fellows to work at the companies. These treks provide invaluable networking opportunities for the fellows who attend.
The highlight of the year for many fellows is SXSW Interactive, which features startups, technology companies and innovative leaders from around the world. This provides a chance to spend time with fellows from across the country over five days.
Students interested in joining the InSITE Fellowship should attend the information session on September 8 @ noon in AB 305.