Senior Reflection on Involvement with Hillside
Senior Reflection on Involvement with Hillside
Hillside Ventures was officially established as a course and program offered by UConn in Fall 2020. This year’s graduating class served as incredible leaders through the fund’s first year and devoted countless hours of work in years prior to ensure its long-term success. In this week’s edition of the newsletter, we look to recognize each senior for their stellar leadership and devotion that has been conducive to Hillside’s success today. Read below for a note from course instructor Greg Reilly and a word from each senior on their experience with Hillside.
Professor’s Note
Greg Reilly, Hillside Instructor & Department Head for Management at the UConn School of Business
The five seniors graduating from Hillside Ventures and UConn are among the most accomplished undergraduate students I have encountered during the 13 years I have been here.
Noah Sobel-Pressman provided the inspiration and perspiration to make Hillside Ventures a reality. As a freshman, he initiated conversations with faculty about creating a Student Venture Fund. For the next few years, he provided the energy and persistence needed to initiate the project.
Zach Zambuto and Devin McNamara joined Noah in 2020 and helped lead the work to build the foundation of Hillside Ventures including:
Completing research on what other schools are doing
Presenting to donors
Building a network of UConn VCs
Recruiting new students
Designing Hillside Ventures operating processes for company screening, due diligence, marketing, recruiting, portfolio management and donor relations
Brandon Milich and Tyler Lasicki joined in January 2021 and brought venture experience, maturity and strong analytical skills to the team. Each of these seniors has demonstrated a remarkable commitment to ensuring the success of this learning community.
Senior Reflections
Noah Sobel-Pressman, Founding Managing Director at Hillside Ventures
Hillside has been one of my favorite experiences in college because of the high-level experience I have gained. In what other classes are you able to quiz startup founders about their company, write full investment memos, and work with students from across UConn? I think my favorite part of the class has been doing a deep dive diligence of a startup culminating in an investment memo. As someone who wants to be a VC eventually, this class was a no-brainer. The skills I have learned, however, are transferable to any job, really, because you are learning what an investable business looks like. I think this has been an amazing experience and would recommend it to any UConn student. I am impressed by how quickly each successive class gets up to speed with the difficulty of learning VC. I can’t recommend this experience enough and feel very fortunate to have participated.
Brandon Milich, Analyst at Hillside Ventures
Wrapping up my senior year, I am left with bittersweet feelings as I reflect upon the past four years in Storrs. Although I only joined this past semester, I am incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to be a part of Hillside Ventures. It has been a significant part of my undergraduate experience. Here, I have been challenged and given considerable professional exposure as a college student. It has been an invaluable and unique opportunity to be a real venture capitalist. While surrounded by like-minded and talented students, I have enjoyed learning both with and from my peers. This past semester I have had a range of experiences from building my network and meeting with founders, to conducting due diligence and supporting the operations of the fund. As an individual pursuing an investing role after graduation, I am happy to have had this experience and am excited to apply what I have learned directly to my career!
Tyler Lasicki, Analyst at Hillside Ventures
After such an exciting semester with such momentum behind Hillside, I would be remiss if I did not feel an urge to do a fifth-year victory lap to stay just a little bit longer with the 17 rockstar analysts of the fund. Through this experience, I have met tremendous entrepreneurs, investors, and students all looking to make their impact on the world in one way or another. It has left me inspired to do the same, in my own unique way. I am grateful for Greg, David, all of the donors and UConn affiliated supports that have worked so hard to make this program a reality. As I finish up my final few weeks here at UConn, I leave excited knowing that the fund is in good hands. I look forward to seeing what is next and where Hillside goes from here. It's just the beginning!
Zach Zambuto, Analyst at Hillside Ventures
I joined Hillside Ventures because I wanted to explore startups a little more after a fellowship with True Ventures. At first, it was a bit overwhelming with the firehose of information, but very quickly I was able to get up to speed on all of the terms that investors like to use. Once myself and the other students started to get organized, we began to operate as a professional and effective team. Every week we would pitch startups and set up meetings with real founders. The whole experience of meeting with real founders and building the fund was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I feel I learned a lot about myself, startups, and finance. While I am sad to be leaving, I had a wonderful time working with everyone! It’s great to see the fund maturing knowing I got to contribute to building something that the rest of the University will get to participate in for the future. I wish the best for the students continuing on the fund.
Devin McNamara, Analyst at Hillside Ventures
When reflecting back on my time at UConn, I have been so grateful for all of the amazing opportunities and experiences that I have been able to gain as well as the people I have been able to meet. That being said, Hillside sticks out as the experience I will miss the most. Seeing Hillside mature from when the first class was sitting in Wilbur Cross deciding the best verticals to invest in to now, three semesters later, finishing raising the fund and getting ready to deploy our first investment has been something that we are all so proud of. Hillside not only gave me the ability to learn more about VC and the startup world, but it provided UConn students an experience that can’t be found at most universities. A huge shoutout to David and Greg for all of their work put into teaching the course, Noah for building out this idea and seeing it come to life, all members of the fund for helping us grow Hillside to what it is today, and finally to all of the alumni and individuals who contributed to the fund in any sense. Good luck to the future groups of Hillside and I can’t wait to see what is in store for Hillside.