Job Title: Venture Associate, Wildcat Seed Fund (Student Position)
Organization: Tech Launch Arizona, University of Arizona
Position Type: Part-Time, Summer 2025 (20 hours/week)
Compensation: Paid
Location: Hybrid (in-person preferred, remote eligible)
About the Role
The Wildcat Philanthropic Seed Fund (WPSF) is Tech Launch Arizona’s pre-seed and seed investment vehicle, backing University of Arizona–affiliated startups across all industries with particular emphasis on university-created deep tech innovation. We invest at the earliest and riskiest stage of a company’s life, before most institutional capital is willing to engage, and we do it with a team that includes students working alongside experienced investors and operators.
We are recruiting four Venture Associates to join our team for the Summer. In this role, you will conduct real due diligence on live investment opportunities, co-author investment memos reviewed by our Investment Committee, engage directly with founders, and contribute to special projects that support our portfolio companies and broader ecosystem efforts. This is not a shadow program or a simulation: your analysis will directly inform capital allocation decisions.
We actively recruit students from engineering, science, and technical disciplines. If you understand how technologies work, or are willing to dig in and learn, that is a genuine advantage when evaluating the innovative deep tech companies in our pipeline. This is a high-expectation, high-opportunity role for students passionate about entrepreneurship, investing, or startup innovation.
What You’ll Do
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Investment Due Diligence
- Evaluate active startup applications to the WPSF across key dimensions: market opportunity, team, technology, traction, competitive landscape, and business model
- Conduct primary research including interviews with founders, customers, and domain experts
- Apply structured frameworks to assess startup readiness and risk
- Collaborate with fellow Associates to develop investment memos and present recommendations to the Investment Committee
- Support deal sourcing by identifying and engaging promising founders within the UA ecosystem
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Special Projects & Portfolio Support
- Conduct research projects on topics relevant to TLA and WPSF: market landscapes, sector analysis, peer program benchmarking, and competitive intelligence
- Support outreach and ecosystem mapping to identify founders, investors, mentors, and partners connected to the UA community
- Provide direct support to WPSF portfolio companies, helping early-stage founders access resources, navigate challenges, and connect to relevant networks
- Contribute to additional projects as they arise, including program development, events, and strategic communications
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Team Operations
- Manage scheduling, meeting preparation, founder communications, and documentation
- Contribute to a professional, intellectually curious, and collaborative team culture
- Support the growth of the broader Startup Wildcats community at the University of Arizona
You Might Be a Good Fit If You…
- Strong candidates come from every corner of the university — engineering, science, medicine, business, law, and beyond. We care more about how you think than what you’ve studied. You’re likely a good fit if you:
- Are an undergraduate or graduate student at the University of Arizona (any major, any year)
- Are genuinely curious about startups, technology, and how early-stage companies are built and funded
- Enjoy rigorous research, analytical writing, and making well-reasoned arguments under uncertainty
- Communicate clearly and professionally in both writing and conversation
- Take ownership of your work, follow through on commitments, and hold yourself to a high standard
- Bring a technical background, or a strong appetite to understand technical subject matter, and can engage credibly with founders building in science and engineering-intensive fields
Preferred (But Not Required) Qualifications
- These are genuinely preferred, not required. We expect to hire candidates without any of them.
- Prior exposure to startups, venture capital, business analysis, or research — in any form
- Technical coursework or research experience in engineering, life sciences, computer science, or a related field
- Coursework in entrepreneurship, finance, strategy, or related business disciplines
- Familiarity with tools such as Excel, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, PitchBook, or Crunchbase
- Experience working independently and as part of a small, fast-moving team
What You’ll Gain
- Hands-on experience in venture capital: conducting real diligence and contributing to live investment decisions
- Direct engagement with founders building companies across deep tech, AI, biotech, biomedical, and other high-impact sectors
- Mentorship and close collaboration with experienced investors, operators, and university leaders
- Substantive professional skills in research, analysis, structured writing, and stakeholder communication
- Portfolio company exposure, working directly with early-stage startups navigating the challenges of commercialization
- A credential and network that is genuinely useful for careers in venture capital, investing, consulting, startups, or research commercialization
- The chance to contribute meaningfully to a new, high-impact fund
- A supportive team culture committed to growth, curiosity, and excellence
