The Martin Trust Center and Wellesley College are pleased to announce the launch of the Batchelor / Feld Entrepreneurship Fellowship program.

Amy Batchelor and Brad Feld are known as a power couple in entrepreneurship, venture capital, and philanthropic circles. Amy is a Wellesley grad (’88) and Brad is an MIT grad (’87, SM ’88), so creating a partnership between the two schools made sense for them.

The Batchelor / Feld Fellowship Program

Wellesley students will now have the opportunity to apply to the 2020 MIT delta v summer accelerator program, made possible by a grant from the Batchelor / Feld Fellowship program. (Applications close Monday, March 30, 2020 at 8 pm ET. Eligible Wellesley students can find the application online.) The grant allows recipients to be full participants in the MIT delta v program in either Cambridge or New York City, working alongside the MIT student teams.

Amy Batchelor is a writer and community leader who has been deeply involved in non-profit activity for two decades. She is the co-author of the book Startup Life: Surviving and Thriving in a Relationship with an Entrepreneur. Amy graduated with a B.A. in Political Philosophy, and has served on the Board of Trustees at Wellesley from 2009 to 2015, and 2018 to the present.

Brad Feld has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of Techstars. As a long-time venture capitalist who has supported entrepreneurship in the for-profit sector, he also provides his expertise and leadership to non-profits. Brad holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Management Science from MIT.

The Trust Center is excited to have Amy and Brad join our long list of generous donors that have made MIT delta v possible, including Jack and Anne Goss who helped get delta v off the ground. It is the generosity of these philanthropists and their support of entrepreneurship that allows us to continue to innovate and elevate our entrepreneurship programs.

About MIT delta v

MIT delta v is MIT’s student venture accelerator, providing a capstone educational opportunity for MIT student entrepreneurs that prepares them to hit escape velocity and launch into the real world. The name “delta v” literally means a change in velocity, and this program has been called the gold standard of academic entrepreneurship accelerators.

From June to early September, teams work on their ventures full-time for the whole summer. Teams will define and refine their target market, conduct primary market research, and build knowledge about their customers and users. They use the Disciplined Entrepreneurship approach to building their ventures. At the end of the summer, the delta v teams formally present their startups at the culmination of the program on Demo Day.

Here are what Batchelor / Feld Fellowship recipients will receive:

  • All Wellesley students are eligible to apply as individuals or as a team
  • Full participation in delta v in either Cambridge or New York City
  • Up to $20,000 in equity-free funding available
  • $2,000/month per student to cover living expenses in June, July, and August
  • Monthly video mentorship meetings with Amy Batchelor and Brad Feld
  • Join a cohort of peers changing the world through entrepreneurship
  • Become part of a strong network of delta v alumni teams with a proven track record

Special thanks to Anabel Springer and Carolyn Price at Wellesley College. These two women are co-founders of NRICH Invest, a FinTech startup designed to motivate college students to invest and save, and who drove the charge for the establishment of the Fellowship. The pair worked as a part of the MIT Sandbox Innovation Fund’s Fall 2019 cohort, and are familiar with the benefits of the MIT entrepreneurship community, such as mentorship, funding, and peer support.

In speaking about the program, Anabel Springer said, “We are ecstatic that this opportunity will provide a way for Wellesley students to engage with entrepreneurship and the larger startup community. Cheers to growing this community and supporting more women and nonbinary student founding teams. Let’s celebrate this moment for entrepreneurship!”

Carolyn Price added, “The fellowship program is an unparalleled opportunity for Wellesley student entrepreneurs to learn and create within MIT’s entrepreneurship accelerator program, delta v.”

In addition, Celine Christory, head of WeStart, and Tarushi Nigam Sinha, president of Wellesley Women in Business (WWIB), also supported us with this program.

We hope to welcome several Batchelor / Feld Entrepreneurship Fellows to delta v this summer. For any questions, please email mtc-deltav20@mit.edu.