Happy new year!

I’m recruiting an intern again, but before we get into that, I’d like to publicly thank my prior interns, whom I like to characterize as heroes:

• 2012: Robert Kelley
• 2013: Nilanjan Basu
• 2014: Jerry Yang
• 2015: Junjie Peng

Each of the four arrived at my office with no VC experience, but more importantly, with an open mind and an appetite to learn. Despite being MBA students, all four proved incredibly adept at getting things done (smile). All four became interested in startups and venture capital, so at least one thing went well. Thank you!

For 2016, let’s try something a little different…

I’m recruiting two interns this time, one to be based in Paris, the other in Tokyo.

The Paris intern will work part-time with me, and part-time with my colleague. This candidate will experience the double drawback of having two bosses, and two potentially diverging sets of expectations to meet. Just kidding. My colleague is undeniably nicer than I am, and we’ll work out a reasonable balance. A comfort level in both English and French are necessary for this role.

The Tokyo intern will work with me exclusively, preferably on a part-time basis. Japanese language proficiency (though not necessarily full fluency) is required for this role.

Here are general guidelines relative to both roles:

• interest in experiencing first-hand the varied activities of working in Venture Capital,
• a dynamic and entrepreneurial individual with aspirations to spend 3~6 months working in a VC fund
• a self-starting individual able to work in an unstructured environment (read: fun but chaotic)
• some degree of comfort with digital media, mobile, or software
• a willingness to perform a variety of professional tasks, some highly intellectually stimulating, others less so

Here’s what I can offer:

• Exposure to an array of entrepreneurs and business ventures in the tech space.
• A chance to learn some of the methods, practices, and tools employed in the VC business, and an opportunity to contribute to their improvement.
• A variety of tasks, ranging from quantitative to qualitative, analytical to motivational, and mundane to inspirational.
• Practically unfettered access to investment pitches, board meetings, negotiations, strategy discussions, deal evaluations, and any other typical VC activities that occur during the period of the internship.
• An endorsed recommendation into VCs or startups post-internship. Many of my previous interns pursued careers in startups, and one even joined a VC fund in Luxembourg.

For interested candidates: please ping me here with a concise pitch of how you would be a good fit for the role based on the above description.