Introducing the 2024 Susa Venture Fellows Class
By Courtney Buie Lipkin, Partner at Susa Ventures
When we started the Susa Venture Fellows Program four years ago our goal was to open the door wider to a career in venture. Since the program launched, thirty three aspiring investors and technologists have joined the Susa Family. Many have gone on to careers in the VC ecosystem, joining the teams at a16z, NextGen Venture Partners, Corazon Capital, Cantos VC, Techstars, and several others. Today, we are excited to announce the eight fellows who will be joining us for this year’s cohort of the Susa Venture Fellows Program.
The 2024 fellows cohort includes an emergency medicine doctor, a nuclear engineer, and several seasoned operators with experience in autonomous vehicles, foundation models, and startup accelerators. Each fellow brings something new to the table as we evaluate opportunities to partner with transformational founders. We value the positive impact their new perspectives have on our internal processes as we constantly improve and hone our firm. It’s impossible to stagnate when working with new fellows who push our thinking every day. Beyond bi-weekly curriculum sessions that cover everything from structuring a fund to building LP relationships, fellows join us for pitches, diligence calls, and post investment support.
Through the Susa Venture Fellows Program, we aim to accelerate innovation by tapping into hidden talent. As you’ll see below, the 2024 Venture Fellows come with a wealth of unique backgrounds and expertise. We’re excited to be a part of their story and to welcome them to the venture community!
Aakash is an Emergency Medicine physician, practicing in high acuity, underserved communities across the US. He also serves as a medical specialist at Google Health and as an angel investor across the digital health, healthcare SaaS and biotech space. Aakash completed his residency training at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center and medical education at Rowan University. Aakash studied biology/economics at Villanova University, and holds a master’s in business administration from Cornell University. Aakash is particularly interested in healthcare consumer psychology, longevity and personalized medicine. Outside of work, Aakash loves exploring new countries with wife, is an avid golfer/tennis player, a semi-pro mixologist, and is determined to one day enjoy distance running.
Chloe is a product builder turned investor, passionate about supporting innovators. She was most recently a product lead at Cisco ThousandEyes, where she developed platform experiences for engineers in high-stakes environments. At Ethos Life, a fintech startup, she launched underwriting and consumer products, leveraging AI to enhance customer acquisition. Before tech, Chloe was a consultant at Cornerstone Research, advising on M&A and capital markets cases. She holds a B.A. in Economics and a B.S. in Business Administration from UC Berkeley and is pursuing her MBA at Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Denny is a recent graduate of Baruch College in NYC. He currently works as a Growth Associate at Google, where he focuses on driving revenue growth among a book of clients within the Google Ads division. Prior to this role, he was a Partner at Dorm Room Fund, where he led pre-seed investments in student-led startups across various sectors, including climate tech, healthcare, B2B software, and robotics. His passion to work alongside founders led him to being the first associate hire at Meltek, working as a Chief of Staff at EVCA, and leading partnerships at a NYC-based startup incubator.
Jack is a Vice President at Leonid Capital Partners, a private credit fund supporting the national security, space, and renewable energy sectors. Before joining Leonid Capital Partners, Jack served as a Naval Submarine Officer in the United States Navy. Jack earned a Bachelor of Science in Quantitative Economics from the United States Naval Academy, where he also served as the captain of the Men’s Lacrosse Team.
Lauren is the Chief of Staff at Kindred, a home swapping platform. Previously, she was at Spectrum Equity, focused on growth investing for software companies. Her prior experience also includes consulting at Bain & Company (based out of their New York office) and Growth at Homebound. Lauren graduated from Harvard, where she studied Economics and Integrative Biology. Lauren grew up outside Philadelphia but has called San Francisco home for the past 4 years. Outside of work, Lauren enjoys tennis and squash, long walks around SF, and trying new restaurants.
Shaheer grew up in the Bay Area and graduated from UC Berkeley a year ago where he studied Econ and Data Sci. He recently worked on Alif, a startup accelerator for Muslims in emerging tech, where they had 5+ of their batch 0 companies sign term sheets post demo day. He is also passionate about the impact nonprofits and policy can have on local communities, and in college he had the chance to work for a couple nonprofits in housing and restorative justice. In his spare time, he loves to cook, play and watch basketball (big Warriors fan), produce beats, run, and read philosophy.
Sonia began her career at Google where she worked as a strategist on the partnerships team. She then transitioned to Google’s moonshot factory working on advanced technology ventures. At Wing (Google’s drone delivery startup), Sonia launched drone delivery sites focused on sending food and medicine during the pandemic. She then moved to Waymo, Google’s self-driving car company, where she led infrastructure and commercialization strategy. In her free time, Sonia enjoys acrylic painting and working with social impact ventures. Most recently, she mentored a female founder expanding a menstrual hygiene company in rural Rwanda. She is currently a second year MBA student at Stanford where she hopes to learn how to identify and invest in moonshot technologies that will positively impact society.
Tanay recently graduated from the University of Texas, majoring in finance as part of the Canfield Business Honors Program. He is an incoming business analyst at McKinsey, where he will focus on their technology consulting practice. He previously spent time at NEA, Battery Ventures, and Republic identifying pockets of opportunity within rapidly-evolving sectors such as fintech, enterprise SaaS, and gaming. We are at a pivotal inflection point in history, with technological advancements poised to reshape society in profound ways. Tanay wants to enable the next generation of technologists to materialize their visions of tomorrow.
