Blackhorn Ventures, Denver, CO
This summer was filled with wonderful experiences and a wealth of learning opportunities at Blackhorn Ventures; and turned into one of the most influential and moving eight weeks of my life. The exposure to revolutionary technologies, industry leaders, and an entrance to a world few know about has been fantastic. The work and projects I completed during my time at Blackhorn has led me to not only continue working for them, but also to continue to explore this world of investment as a potential career path.
Blackhorn Ventures is a relatively new venture capital firm based in Denver, focusing on early-stage businesses that are bringing resource efficiency to industrial sectors. The firm’s primary focus lies within the energy, transportation, and built environment sectors as well as the convergence of the three. Many of the technologies they invest in revolve around the data and technology revolution. There is an ever-increasing number of sensors, monitors, software systems and predictive algorithms that are creating a digital world for us to tap in to. However, the industrial sector has not taken advantage of this new technologies. This is where Blackhorn steps in. They recognize that the industrial sector is antiquated and inefficient. This provides not only an opportunity to create a positive environmental and social impact by reducing waste and pollution, but also offers the opportunity for financial gains as well. Wherever there are efficiency gains, there is money to be made.
All of this was made clear to me over the summer, but in the beginning, I had no prior experience with accounting, financial institutions, especially concerning growth capital and private capital accounts. This thirst for knowledge and learning served me well. At the firm, they gave me a breadth of opportunities to grow and expand my capabilities throughout the summer. This ranged from creating fundraising documents to compiling information from the annual retreat to creating guidance for the next four quarters and overseeing due diligence for a multi-millionaire dollar investment. These projects offered me increasing independence and responsibilities as the summer progressed. I feel that the variety also offered me a fantastic learning experience. Just like at Williams, I was constantly trying new things, being pushed out of my comfort zone, and having to work hard to get things done for those that relied upon me.
The summer started off at a rapid pace. On day one, I was assigned with compiling an information piece for their new fundraising platform. The project consisted of me reading through various legal documents and pitch decks to create a unified piece that is currently being used to source investors. The project was not only very important and required great attention to detail, but also offered me an in-depth look into the operating structure of the firm, their investing thesis, and what they believed was their edge over their competitors. This served as a jumping off point for the rest of the summer with not only foundational knowledge of the firm, but also some insight into what direction the firm would be taking during my time there.
I was made aware that I would be attending the company’s annual retreat halfway through the summer. This was a chance for the partners to all congregate together for a long weekend, disconnect from society and their abundance of other responsibilities to focus on the future of Blackhorn. The partners consist of Mckinsey alums, current Stanford professors, an ex-governor, a former CIO at the Walton family office and very successful angel investors. Alongside the partners, we had one of the CEO’s from an investment company come to retreat to offer insight into robotics, digital twinning technology, and micro-location in several industries. Also, as head of the MIT innovation group, he was an extremely useful asset in any aspect regarding ground-breaking technologies. Throughout this time, I garnered a wealth of knowledge from these individuals, and this trip was more than just an annual recap and look forward, it was an extraordinarily rewarding experience giving me a new way to perceive and analyze problems.
As the summer came to a close, I wrapped up with a data project. The CTO and I oversaw the transition from the current CRM solution to a new one. This not only involved the research and parsing of the market options, but also transitioning all the current data to the new platform that is currently being used in the day-to-day processes of all of the partners. The work I did for the team was enough for them to offer me a paid position, and I will be continuing the work I did while abroad studying at the Stockholm School of Economics this fall.
This experience and the skills I gathered throughout the summer will help me as I progress throughout my career, whether that be in venture capital or an alternative route. However, these abilities will also help outside the office. The time management, interpersonal skills, and analytical thinking that I developed and practiced throughout this summer will show up in day-to-day life at Williams and elsewhere.
Finally, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who helped make this internship possible. My time at Blackhorn has given me the chance to go outside of my comfort zone and explore a field that I otherwise would not have been able to. Programs like ASIP are what make Williams such a special place and make me proud to call it my home.
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