Career Path Of A Climate Venture Fellow At An Early Stage Venture Capital
After graduating with a geography degree, Nick's career path was a journey of self-discovery, starting with a year at their university's alumni office before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, where four startups provided experience in customer support, marketing, and event management. This led them to pursue a dual MBA/MS in sustainability, culminating in a Climate Venture Fellow role focused on "bringing ideas outta the lab into the market" through early-stage investing.
Career Exploration, Sustainable Business, Project Management, Entrepreneurship, Climate Change
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Nick Rojas
Climate Venture Fellow
Early stage VC
UCLA
University of Michigan, Ross School of Business MBA, School for the Environment and Sustainability MS Sustainable Systems
Environmental & Related Sciences
Climate, Environment, Sustainability & Waste Management, Finance (Banking, Fintech, Investing)
Climate, Environment and Sustainability
Honors Student, Scholarship Recipient, Pell Grant Recipient, Took Out Loans, Worked 20+ Hours in School, Greek Life Member, LGBTQ, First Generation College Student
Video Highlights
1. It's okay to not have a clear career path right after college. Nick's journey shows that exploring different roles (alumni affairs, customer support, marketing) can lead to self-discovery and a fulfilling career.
2. A dual MBA/MS in Sustainability degree helped Nick focus his passion for the environment into a business context, demonstrating the value of further education in career transitions.
3. Early-stage investing in climate-tech startups is a viable career path. Nick's experience shows how skills from various roles (marketing, project management) can be applied to this field.
Transcript
Could you walk me through your career path, starting with your experiences in college? Did you have any internships or jobs before your current role?
Sure, sure thing. For myself, I'm 33 now. While still a young professional, I certainly feel like a seasoned young professional at this point.
When I graduated UCLA in 2013, I had a geography degree and was really passionate about environmental issues. I didn't have a clear sense of what that looked like or the kind of work I wanted to do to be involved in creating a more sustainable world or fighting climate change. I went through a journey figuring that out, figuring myself out, and what I'm interested in and enjoy doing.
That journey, while maybe taking longer than my peers finding their calling, was the right one for me. It's important to remember that you're never on one set journey, and there is no one correct path. It's whatever's right for you.
I worked at the university for a year in the alumni affairs office. I got a good feeling for what it was like to work at such a large institution and part of a really big team around alumni affairs and engaging our alumni. As a recently graduated one myself at the time, I learned that I enjoy being on a smaller team.
So, I made the change to work for small startups and moved up to the San Francisco Bay area. While there, I worked for four different startups. I started in customer support and customer success, getting promoted and working my way up. Eventually, I went into marketing as a program and project manager for marketing programs and then event management.
This involved creating our events program, our conference strategy, going to trade shows, and representing the company. I brought our sales associates and sales engineers to meet potential customers, ensuring all tracking happened along the way for good business outcomes.
As I got close to the end of my twenties, I started reflecting a lot on what I wanted to do and if this made me happy. I began to think back to my passion and interest in the environment. That's what brought me back to grad school.
I came here to the University of Michigan, where I just graduated in May with a dual degree: an MBA and an MS in sustainability. My focus is on how we can bring the business world and the power of the private market to address issues in sustainability.
I've become really interested in how we bring ideas out of the lab and into the market with early-stage investing. This involves helping technical founders build good, solid business models to bring the solutions we need to fight climate change.