{"id":14965,"date":"2022-01-04T10:47:03","date_gmt":"2022-01-04T10:47:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/startgreen.nl\/internship-at-borski-fund-from-lead-to-portfolio-company\/"},"modified":"2022-01-04T10:47:03","modified_gmt":"2022-01-04T10:47:03","slug":"internship-at-borski-fund-from-lead-to-portfolio-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/startgreen.nl\/en\/internship-at-borski-fund-from-lead-to-portfolio-company\/","title":{"rendered":"Internship at Borski Fund: from lead to portfolio company"},"content":{"rendered":"

January 4, 2022<\/span><\/p>\n

Febe van den Bergen completed a 4-month internship at Borski Fund. After finishing her Bachelor\u2019s in Business Administration at Erasmus University, Febe chose to gain practical experience during a gap year and learn everything about the world of venture capital<\/em>. In this blog, she shares her experiences. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Complete cycle
\n<\/span><\/strong> As the end of my internship at Borski Fund approaches, I look back with pleasure on what I have done there over the past few months. The process at a venture capital fund starts with a lead. After that, the fund goes through several phases: it conducts analyses, holds meetings, and writes reports. With a 4-month internship, my goal was to experience a full deal and see as many sides of a venture capital fund as possible. Spoiler alert: I succeeded. <\/p>\n

At Borski Fund, there are 6 steps in the investment process: 1) Intake 2) Internal analysis 3) Due diligence 4) Contracting 5) Participation and 6) Exit. Each phase involves specific actions. I was able to experience (almost) all of these phases for various companies. <\/p>\n

1. Intake: the start of the investment process<\/span><\/strong>
\nSome entrepreneurs approach Borski Fund themselves, while the team also actively searches for relevant startups. In this context, I attended meetings with Borski Fund partner The Next Women, where we exchanged leads. Additionally, I was involved in various events with other investors both domestically and abroad, which repeatedly generated interesting leads. Borski Fund invests in diverse and all-female<\/em> teams that have founded a technology company. <\/p>\n

For the intake, I reviewed more than 100 pitch decks and conducted initial analyses: Is there a fit with the investment criteria? What does an initial market scan reveal? And what are the backgrounds and skills of the entrepreneurs? This allowed the rest of the team to focus on companies that truly fit Borski Fund. <\/p>\n

Not only did I quickly learn to recognize what a potential new participation could be, but I also learned about contacting entrepreneurs and providing feedback and tips. To make the entire process even more efficient, Borski Fund \u2014 like the other StartGreen Capital funds \u2014 switched to a new CRM system during my internship. While entering all the data, I saw more than 350 pitch decks. This gave me a good overview of the startup landscape in the Netherlands and Europe. Furthermore, this process provided the opportunity to collaborate weekly with the various funds within StartGreen. <\/p>\n

2. Internal analysis: the coffee hour as a pressure<\/em> cooker<\/em>
\n<\/span><\/strong> Once companies pass those initial analyses, Borski Fund invites the entrepreneurs for a ‘coffee hour’. This is an initial introduction and offers the opportunity to delve deeper into the pitch deck. I organized these coffee hours and was involved in more than 25 of these meetings. I found it very educational to actually talk to the entrepreneurs about their proposition beyond the analyses. When these conversations resulted in a positive fit<\/em> with the fund, we proceeded with internal analyses. <\/p>\n

First, I drafted a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), after which I received additional information and access to various data rooms to conduct deeper research into the company. I did this using, among other things, a QuickScan developed by Borski Fund: this highlights key points regarding the product\/service, the market, the team, and the financial picture in a handy overview. Furthermore, I conducted in-depth competitor analyses for companies in both the health<\/em> sector and the fashion industry.<\/em> I also performed a beauty market analysis to select the most promising startups in this market. <\/p>\n

Using a Borski Fund benchmark document, I was able to compare companies and perform analyses based on various operational and financial metrics<\/em>. In this phase, the team prepares a term sheet with an initial valuation and a description of the further process. <\/p>\n

3. Due diligence: everyone has their say
\n<\/span><\/strong> During due diligence, the fund conducts in-depth research and speaks with various parties to arrive at an accurate picture of the company. What I find interesting about this phase is that, in addition to your own analyses, those of other experts can lead to new insights. I learned a lot from that. For example, Borski Fund has a Future of Health<\/em> committee that reviews companies in the health sector. <\/p>\n

I also attended strategy sessions with co-investors and spoke with various LPs (limited partners<\/em>) of Borski Fund and with companies within their area of expertise. When a positive impression remained after all these conversations and analyses, it was time to write the investment proposal for the Investment Advisory Committee (IAC). I was able to attend several IAC meetings, where the IAC discussed proposals and provided final advice. In addition to the IAC, some companies also had to go before the Advisory Board, and I was allowed to help prepare for and attend these meetings as well. <\/p>\n

4. Contracting: details are important<\/span><\/strong>
\nAfter all that advice and those conversations, the Borski Fund team could make its own assessment regarding the closing<\/em> of the deal. The final negotiations on the shareholders’<\/em> agreement<\/em> took place, and I could start on the factsheet: a document containing all the important information about the company for all investors in Borski Fund. Additionally, I prepared the post-<\/em>closing<\/em> document, outlining the key points of the deal. <\/p>\n

5. Participation: a portfolio that promotes gender equality (and many more SDGs)<\/span><\/strong>
\nEvery Monday morning, there was a so-called deal flow meeting<\/em> with the entire Borski team, including the venture partners: Dagmar and Aletta. In this meeting, we discussed the progress of the companies in the pipeline at every stage of the cycle. In addition to this weekly meeting, there was a meeting every Thursday about the portfolio companies. There, we discussed key points using the Value<\/em> Creation<\/em> Model<\/em>. <\/p>\n

In preparation for these meetings, I was involved in update calls<\/em> with the company. I also reviewed monthly figures and, together with analyst Stefan, looked at how the companies were performing in terms of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Borski Fund not only invests in female entrepreneurs, thereby contributing to SDG 5: Gender Equality, but 89 percent of the deal flow companies also contribute to one of the other 17 SDGs. This is something I personally find very exciting. <\/p>\n

6. Exit: to be continued<\/span><\/strong>
\nAfter a few years, the shares in a company are sold. Although I saw many exit strategies during my internship, I did not experience an exit myself. But when the time comes, I will drop by to see exactly how that works. <\/p>\n

Educational experience<\/span><\/strong>
\nNow it really is the end of my internship at Borski. On my first day, I was still asking: ‘What is a pitch deck?’ The time since then has flown by. It was an incredibly educational experience in which I was allowed to do a great deal and gained a complete picture of the ins and outs of a venture capital fund. <\/p>\n

Thank you<\/span><\/strong>
\nSimone, Laura, Bertrand, Stefan, the venture partners, the health committee, the IAC, the Advisory Board, all colleagues at StartGreen and, of course, all the entrepreneurs: thank you for everything you have taught me! I will continue to follow you. Unfortunately, I am ending this internship as I began it, namely in quarantine with a positive COVID test, but I will see you all again soon at the beautiful office in the KIT. <\/p>\n

Finally, I would like to point out the possibility of doing an internship at Borski Fund. You can apply via this link: Vacancy – Borski Fund<\/a> <\/p>\n

Other internships at StartGreen can be found on the page Working at StartGreen Capital<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

January 4, 2022 Febe van den Bergen completed a 4-month internship at Borski Fund. After finishing her Bachelor\u2019s in Business Administration at Erasmus University, Febe chose to gain practical experience during a gap year and learn everything about the world of venture capital. In this blog, she shares her experiences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":14967,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[135,143,121,129],"tags":[174,128,175,130,131],"class_list":["post-14965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-borski-fund","category-news","category-startgreen-capital","tag-blog","tag-energiefonds-overijssel","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-financing","tag-impact"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/startgreen.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/startgreen.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/startgreen.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startgreen.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startgreen.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/startgreen.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startgreen.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/startgreen.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startgreen.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startgreen.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}