We're not your typical career counsellor – we make you meet the real minds behind the world of Web3

Academy Ventures began as a passion project by a student at Claremont McKenna College, who sought to address a challenging and personal problem he encountered at the outset of his Web3 journey. For the eight months following its inception, he dedicated most of his earnings from his campus job to the project, driven by his dream and vision of creating a global platform for students in the blockchain world. Today, Academy Ventures stands at the forefront of the university blockchain community and is among the fastest-growing student communities in blockchain. Our mission is to simplify the process of finding careers in Web3 and to make it more personal. Specifically, we are solving the difficulty of landing jobs in the blockchain industry by connecting job-seeking students directly to company founders. By matching talented students to powerful blockchain startups, including ones backed by Y-Combinator, we serve as Web3 career mentors that many students lack in traditional university institutions.

What will the funding be used for?

The funds raised from this grant round will bring us closer to our vision of creating an interconnected blockchain platform for students worldwide. Having come this far with bootstrapped funding from on-campus jobs, we are now seeking the resources and funding needed to take our operations to the next level. We would like to:

1. Extend our reach to student blockchain communities across the US—from coast to coast—and internationally, especially in less developed regions.
2. Expand our team by hiring more members, including students, to enhance our efficiency in sourcing job opportunities and securing partnerships.
3. Develop a more robust website and platform for our students to use.

Why does this matter?

While the blockchain industry has made significant strides in transforming our financial landscape over recent years, many university institutions are lagging behind. They often fail to provide students with sufficient career mentorship and guidance for landing jobs in the industry.

We are here to change that.

Academy Ventures is dedicated to guiding students through the challenges of this space, helping them secure jobs, irrespective of their prior knowledge. We do more than just present a job board and leave students to fend for themselves. We take them through every step of the job-seeking process: from resume crafting, connecting with HR teams and founders, preparing for interviews, to salary negotiation. Students deserve guidance from people who are deeply familiar with the space, not from out of touch career counselors. Our endeavors resonate strongly with the objectives of the Web3 Community & Education Round. We provide an array of educational, professional, and networking opportunities for hundreds of students enthusiastic about Web3.

What do students get out of this?

1. Powerful Jobs: Through our connections to founders at impactful blockchain startups, we refer and connect students directly to company teams, eliminating the struggle of "knowing someone" there.
2. Strategic Network: With exposure to company founders, investor groups, and diverse DAOs, we allow students to meet and network with industry leaders who are driving the blockchain space forwards.
3. Valuable Mentorship: With years of industry experience and knowledge, we provide students with valuable mentorship to help them navigate the complexities and challenges of the Web3 space.
4. Extensive Resources: By expanding into all verticals of the blockchain industry, we both write our own research and source valuable learning opportunities and resources that can prepare students for a career in Web3.
5. Warm Community: We pride ourselves in building a welcoming and inclusive community of students, founders, and investors who are all willing to help each other grow and learn in a rapidly evolving industry.
6. Speakers & Hackathons: Through our expansive network, we expose students to valuable opportunities for creating and attending in-person events such as hackathons, speaker events, and networking treks.

Our Story - The Founder’s Message

How we got here:

Growing up in Jordan, a country filled with remittance workers, I was deeply influenced by an interaction with an immigrant neighbor. She had spent years paying intermediary services sizable portions of her salary to transfer money back to her family in the Philippines. After doing some math to calculate the total money she had lost over the years, I was shocked by the number. Thus, when I learned about blockchain technology's potential to shape a decentralized global financial landscape, I was hooked.

In 2019, during my freshman year at Claremont McKenna College, I approached the university's career services for advice about the blockchain industry. I was disheartened by the scarcity of resources to aid my quest of finding job opportunities in the blockchain industry. Fortunately, my elder brother, an accomplished angel investor in the space, took me under his wing and mentored me. Assisting him with deal flow management introduced me to numerous influential companies and founders. This experience not only expanded my network dramatically but also gave me a holistic view of the industry's transformation and its trends.

Reflecting on my journey, I realized the stark contrast between the multitude of opportunities I was presented with now compared to the limited resources available to me at my university. I reasoned that if I, at a great institution in a first world country, faced such hurdles, countless other students worldwide must be experiencing similar challenges. This realization sparked the concept for Academy Ventures.

My initial goal was to connect and unify disparate student blockchain communities across the US. Concurrently, I leveraged investor contacts I had built to try and establish a small fund to invest in Web3 startups, aiming to harness its network effects to curate job opportunities for students. A group of investors loved the idea and agreed to partner with our project, providing capital on a deal-by-deal basis. However, as we neared the finalization of deals, securing commitments became challenging due to the current market climate's low liquidity and investors' high risk aversion. As a solo student founder, I felt as though I was building two startups simultaneously while also juggling academic commitments.

Nevertheless, these challenges didn't deter Academy Ventures. We consistently found creative ways to provide job opportunities for students. For instance, we formed partnerships with industry leaders that opened up positions at powerful startups, including those backed by Y-Combinator.

Recently reading Uri Levine's Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution, I recognized the importance of focus as a founder during a startup's infancy. I was not doing this, and I recognized my inefficiency. I came to understand that a venture fund wasn't essential for accessing invaluable job opportunities or for engaging with founders. Subsequently, I decided that we should pivot, so we're now solely channeling our energies into creating the best hiring platform for students in the Web3 space. Our efforts are bearing fruit, as evidenced by strategic collaborations like our recent partnership with InnMind, a Web3 business intelligence platform, which has amplified our outreach to startups for students by over 15,000. Iteration has been the key to our success so far.

Where we’re going:

We're just getting started. While our primary goal right now is to create a hiring platform connecting students to the best job opportunities in the field, our ultimate vision for Academy Ventures is to be the premier destination for students in Web3. Regardless of your location or prior experience in the Web3 space, if you're a student passionate about blockchain, we want you to leverage the Academy.

As momentum builds on a grand scale, the possibilities are endless: from establishing an in-house accelerator program to forming brand partnerships and curating engaging online social experiences. We envision immense potential for this project.

Official Partnerships

University Blockchain Partners

• University of Southern California
• University of Washington
• Pomona College
• Harvey Mudd College
• Claremont McKenna College
• Pitzer College
• Scripps College
• University of Oregon
• University of Wisconsin-Madison
• University of Calgary

Hiring Partners

• InnMind: A business intelligence platform leveraging AI to match startups with VC investors. Our partnership with InnMind offers students networking opportunities with over 15,000 startups and more than 1,000 investors.
• Monke Ventures: The investment syndicate of MonkeDAO, aiming to make high-quality deal flow equally accessible to the average investor. To date, members have invested over $1,600,000 in the MonkeVentures portfolio. Through our partnership, students gain access to valuable job and fundraising opportunities.
• ICP.Hub North America: An initiative powered by the DFINITY Foundation, dedicated to promoting the Internet Computer's potential across North America. As our partner, they assist in securing grants from DFINITY for affiliated student blockchain clubs, enabling them to host real-life speaker events and hackathons.

Research

1. Interview with Taiko, a Type-1 zk-EVM
2. Interview with Kevin Henrikson, Founder of Dust Labs
3. Research Article on zk-Proofs
4. Research Article on Soulbound Tokens

Connect

Website: https://www.academyventures.xyz/ Telegram: https://t.me/academyventures Discord: https://discord.gg/TtZXDn4yhn Twitter: https://twitter.com/venturesacademy LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/academy-ventures-xyz/