IndieBio New York Venture Fellow Program

IndieBio New York’s Venture Fellows are selected as emerging leaders in biotech entrepreneurship to work alongside the IndieBio New York team in identifying the next generation of early stage life sciences companies that will transform the future of human and planetary health.

As a Venture Fellow, you will help the team identify new investment opportunities, meet with prospective founders, drive diligence processes, and serve as an ambassador for our start-up development programs. IndieBio NY Venture Fellows will learn about venture investing, mentor early stage biotech founders, and support the IndieBio team in accelerating the next wave of innovation.

Fellows are appointed annually and join the team on a part-time basis for a period of three to six months. Applicants should be graduates of or currently enrolled in PhD, MD, MD/MBA, MD/PhD, or postdoctoral programs.

We are currently accepting applications to our 2023 Venture Fellow Program.

Responsibilities

  1. Sourcing: Engage in direct sourcing of opportunities that meet IndieBio’s investment criteria
    • Source investment opportunities via direct outreach efforts to founders
    • Lead efforts to meet, review, track, and triage investments
  2. Diligence: Review and diligence investment opportunities
    • Engage in due diligence of underlying science or technology of prospective companies
    • Conduct research to determine market opportunity and commercialization prospects
  3. Outreach: Develop connectivity with innovation ecosystem
    • Conduct outreach to organizations nationwide including technology transfer offices, academic institutions, incubators, and investors
    • Set up events and information sessions for prospective applicants
  4. Thought Leadership: Develop written content on trends in biotech innovation

Commitment & Candidate

  1. Part-time: 15 hours / week
  2. Timeframe: 3 months – 6 months
  3. Location: Remote or in-person based at IndieBio NY offices in Manhattan
  4. Existing network of entrepreneurs and contacts in life sciences industry preferred
  5. Experience working with and evaluating early stage companies preferred
  6. Knowledge of Google office / Microsoft suite

Introducing IndieBio NY’s 2022 Venture Fellow Class

Nikki Van Teijlingen Bakker, PhD/MBA

Nikki is an MBA candidate at IESE business school, with a Ph.D. in Immunometabolism from Max Planck. She has prior experience working in Venture Capital focused on healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa and she did her MBA internship at a medical device company. Originally from the Netherlands, she’s lived in Glasgow, Freiburg, Bogotá, and now Barcelona. She has two beautiful cats, loves having people over for a drink and some food, and if she has the chance she enjoys a game of paintball!

Michael Craige, PhD/MBA

Michael is a trained experimental and computational post-doctorate research scientist at Rutgers University and the recipient of the 2021 NSF Computing Innovation Postdoctoral Fellowship. Michael is the ex-founder of a scientific-informatics consulting firm, that operated across the US and Canada. He is an NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Fellow, and a Kauffman FastTrac Entrepreneurial Fellow. Michael devotes his spare time to raising funds for sick kids who have exhausted insurance and other financial resources, as the founding director of the CiDrep SickKids Foundation.

Victoria Kusztos, MD

Victoria earned her Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Tufts University, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude. She has a background in clinical research and has served as the clinical lead on several healthcare technology-related projects. She is currently in her final year of medical school at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where she is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. In her spare time, she enjoys training for marathons, hiking, and traveling.

Andreas Hadjimitsis, PhD

Andreas obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge, where he received two Jennings Prizes for academic achievement. He is currently working towards a Ph.D. in Synthetic Biology at Imperial College London. He has previous experience in startups and management consulting. In his spare time, Andreas enjoys going to the theatre, playing tennis, and hiking.

Aditya Ramamurthy, MS

Aditya currently works as a Lab Manager at the Movement Recovery Lab at Columbia University, spearheading the research for an STTR Grant. He is also an active member of the Columbia Venture Community. In his previous role at New York University, he collaborated with companies and co-developed Point of Care Diagnostic Devices to detect HIV, Malaria, and Zika Virus. If he’s not working, he’s probably driving around to discover untapped scenic views, taking pictures, or having deep-dive conversations with people about Scientific Innovation, Formula 1 Racing, and Music.