How We Are Powering Up Our Future Camelback Fellows
By: Caroline Lutkewitte, Search + Align Manager at Camelback Ventures
It’s my favorite time of the year at Camelback Ventures. No, its not spring weather or tax season.
Here it is - the opening of the 2021 Camelback Fellowship Application. With our search for the next generation of the #CamelbackFam in full swing, we wanted to fill you in on some updates. In the name of continuous evolution, we’re making a few changes (you know we like to keep it fresh!)
First off - what hasn’t changed? Staying true to our mission. Camelback is still ruthlessly pursuing livable communities where everyone has the opportunity for a quality education and a good life. To get there, we're on the look-out for 8-12 early-stage entrepreneurs of color and women & non-binary founders in the education & conscious tech sectors. Heard enough? Apply here by April 23rd.
What’s new? In one word, it’s alignment. If I can indulge you with a complete sentence, it’s about meeting entrepreneurs where they’re at. Like most of the world, the simultaneous quiet of quarantine tempered by the cacophony of COVID in the past year has encouraged us to take a hard look at our impact. After wrapping up the 2020 Fellowship amidst the early days of the pandemic, we directed much of our attention to supporting our alumni to survive and thrive. With that same intention, we also took the time to redesign our strategy to find and serve more entrepreneurs.
Alignment, to us, is all about power - specifically empowering, you, the entrepreneur, to assess whether Camelback is a good fit for your venture. One way to do that is through our Alignment Quiz. If you decide “yes,” we’ve reconstructed our application process to highlight all the things that make you and your venture special - but, hopefully, not increasing the time it takes to tell us.
If you decide “not right now,” we’re increasing the possibility for you to decide “right now” into 2022 and beyond. Come next year, we’ll be increasing the number of our fellowship offerings and simultaneously hosting several Fellowship application windows. That way, you’ll have more flexibility on when you choose to submit your application and what fellowship time frame best suits your professional and personal needs.
Finally, we're building in a stronger feedback loop to our Fellowship application and evaluation processes in order to deliver you personalized commentary on your application materials. We’re starting small this year, but will be continually pursuing a more open dialogue between us and founders.
I’ll touch more on power in the coming months as we continue to refine our application and evaluation mechanisms to better prioritize the needs and strengths of our entrepreneurial audience. If you have ideas on how to make this happen, please reach out. We always appreciate and learn how to better support founders like you from constructive feedback.
In the end, application season is my favorite time of year at Camelback because it connects me with inspiring entrepreneurs from across the country. Learning about their work being done on-the-ground in education and conscious tech has reminded me that we have power in numbers. The best part now is we’re harnessing that power year-round.
Read more about applying to the Fellowship:
Find out more about How to Apply to The Camelback Ventures Fellowship below: