The Activus Fellowship

We received over 1500 applicants for our 2020 programs and past Fellows include students from Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Princeton, Columbia, Brown, UT Austin, Duke, Berkley, Georgetown, and Yale.

Program Details

Three month training program

Activus Fellows perform real deal work, not busy work. You'll work side-by-side with other Fellows, the Fellowship Directors, our managing partners where you'll be trained to think like an investor.

The program teaches the art and science of evaluating investment opportunities in the lower middle market and consists of three main components:

1. 1. Education & Training
2. 2. Pitching Investment Opportunities
3. 3. Community & Coaching

Education & Training

Our Fellowship training is taught through an online blended learning approach — online lessons and live workshops.

The goal of our program is to teach Fellows how to identify and evaluate investment opportunities in the lower middle-market (aka, small private companies). You'll complete a rigorous training program through the online Activus Academy, develop your skills in analyzing and presenting deals, and evaluate and present ~1 new deal per week during the course of the program.

While there are many similarities between acquiring a small business, a private equity buyout fund, or large M&A transactions, the world of small business is highly entrepreneurial, fragmented, and nuanced. Through our training, Fellows will gain the skills and knowledge necessary to:

1. • Evaluate Investments: analyze a target company merits, risks, and financial statements and historical performance.
2. • Presenting Opportunities: presenting your investment memos to the Diligence Committee making your case for passing on or acquiring a company

Pitching Investment Opportunities

Fellows will work in teams to evaluate opportunities, analyze financial statements and historical performance, and present opportunities to other Fellows and Partners in a virtual Diligence Committee (“DC”) meeting. This approach is modeled after a Partner meeting at a PE or VC firm.

Fellows will work in teams of two and DC meetings will include two teams (four Fellows total) and the Fellowship Director or one of the Activus Partners. Each DC group will meet once per week during the fellowship starting in week two to present and evaluate that deal for that week.

Community & Coaching

We believe the good life is built on good relationships. Although this a virtual program, we foster a community experience in a few key ways:

1. • Fellowship Partners - You will be assigned a Fellowship partner and together you will evaluate opportunities and present to Diligence Committees.
2. • Diligence Committees - Fellowship partners will be partnered into four-person diligence committees where you'll present your deal memo, financial analysis, and overall recommendation on whether to continue evaluating the deal or pass on it.
3. • Networking Socials - You'll participate in online networking events to get to know your Fellowship class and make meaningful connections that last beyond the program.
4. • 1 on 1's - You will have opportunities to meet with our leadership team for 1 on 1's. Think of this as a casual virtual coffee meeting where the floor is yours to ask anything (career advice, deal/financial questions, etc.).
5. • Fireside chats - we host Q&A conversations with industry experts across finance, investing, and technology. Past guests include:

1. • Jon Bassett, the Managing Director of NextGen Venture Partners. How he went from a gardening startup to becoming a venture capitalist running a $200M fund.
2. • Alex Konrad, senior editor at Forbes who covers Midas List and the 30 Under 30 for VC.
3. • Eliana Murillo, Head of multicultural marketing at Google and co-founder of Tequila Alquimia

Given the high demand of the program, our selection process is two parts. First, we will select finalists from among the applicants. Second, if selected as a finalist, you'll be given an interview assignment to evaluate and present your thoughts on an investment opportunity to help us learn about you and how you think.