Welcome to Illuminated, a biweekly (lol) curated newsletter featuring must-read content by Rice Ventures, Rice University’s student-led startup accelerator and entrepreneurship club. We’re aiming to become the BNOC (big name on campus) for anything and everything entrepreneurship at Rice. In this curated newsletter, you’ll find how RV operates, ways to engage in entrepreneurship at Rice, and insights into the Houston startup ecosystem. Please like this issue above if you’ve enjoyed reading! If you’ve been sent this email and you’re not a subscriber, you can join by clicking on the button below.
So…. we missed a couple of issues… sorry about that luv xx 😗 But we hope you missed us! Issues will be live, on time, as usual from now on. It’s a one woman show over here, and life got a little busy! I’m back n better than ever though, so let’s talk tech + VC! 😎
Rice Ventures Reports
A LOT has happened over the last month, so we’re just gonna dive right in.
Photo-taking app Dispo has cut ties with cofounder David Dobrik due to his direct involvement in a sexual assault allegation. Investor Spark Capital divested their investment from the company due to this news:
Beeple earned $69MM on his NFT sale. This was a record-setting NFT sale, of a collage of images made every day for 13 years. The piece, “Everydays”, ranks third in highest sale of a work by a living artist.
Since NFTs are all anyone can talk about, people on TikTok are even hopping on:
But enough about trends! Let’s go back to something more VCs are familiar with. Taylor Brandt at RedSea Ventures wrote a piece on the evolving commerce stack. Check it out here.
Last but not least, Rice Ventures Spring 2021 is halfway through our program! Peep our mentors/cohort so far:
Sorry for the photodump but we’re just so proud. 💙
Houston Happenings:
Women of Color Conference, March 25, 12-4pm CST
Mercury Impact Series: Female Founders Panel, March 30, 10am CST
Houston DevOps Meetup, March 30, 5:30-7pm CST
FemTech Fundamentals: Branding Your Startup, March 31, 12-1pm CST
Napier Rice Launch Challenge, Apr 22
Internships:
Get that 🍞 y’all! Aren’t you just dying to post that “Some ~personal news~! I’m thrilled to announce I’m joining…” LinkedIn post? We know you are. If you represent a company and want us to promote an open position, send us an email at team@riceventures.org.
Internships
Pledge LA’s Summer VC Intern
Equal Ventures MBA Summer Intern
Richmond View Ventures B2B Marketing Intern
Bennu Biz Dev Intern
Armory Square Ventures 2021 Venture Fellow
Equal Ventures MBA Intern
Full-time
Precursor Ventures Analyst
General Catalyst’s RDV Investment Analyst
Madrona Venture Group Investor (Associate/Principal-level)
Venture Forward Marketing + Operations Associate
Accion Venture Labs Investment + Portfolio Associate
Cowboy Ventures Investment Associate
Eniac Ventures Analyst
Pillar VC Investing Associate
A16Z Network Engagement Partner
Primary VC Portfolio Impact Principal
What We’re Following:
The world is whirling with news and events right now. Take a breath, take a break, take care of yourself. Here are some things to take your mind off the news:
Prince Harry is the new Chief Impact Officer at BetterUp
Microsoft may be acquiring Discord 👾
So you broke into VC… what now? Here’s some Twitter thread advice:
Hey! We’re Rice Ventures, Rice University’s student-led accelerator and entrepreneurship club. Thanks for reading Illuminated! We’d love your feedback - feel free to email us at team@riceventures.org. Like and follow our Facebook page and LinkedIn. For more content, check out our Notion and website.
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