A new academic year brings fresh energy and exceptional talent to the original student-run venture firm. This fall, Dorm Room Fund embarked on a rigorous search across North America’s campuses to uncover the next generation of standout student investors. Out of more than 1,300 talented applicants competing for fewer than 30 coveted spots, hundreds of coffee chats and highly competitive (and genuinely fun!) interviews paved the way for our new cohort of extraordinary partners: the Class of 2024!
This group is nothing short of remarkable. From seasoned entrepreneurs with successful exits to engineers innovating at the frontier of technology — like designing semiconductors in their dorm rooms — this cohort embodies creativity, drive, and excellence. We’re also thrilled to announce several firsts: our inaugural investment partners from Caltech, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Waterloo, marking our first-ever Canadian-based investment partner.
Without further ado, we’re proud to introduce the Class of 2024: Dorm Room Fund’s newest investment partners.
SF & West Coast
Rishi is a second-year student at the University of Texas at Austin, pursuing a triple major in Business Honors, Plan II, and Finance. He serves as the chief of staff at Genesis, UT Austin’s venture fund, and is a co-founder of Redemly, an all-in-one rewards platform. Rishi is passionate about the intersection of venture capital and law, aspiring to blend these fields in his future career. Previously, he interned at True Wealth Ventures, a women-led VC firm, where he sourced and analyzed investments that impacted human health and environment. Rishi enjoys watching movies, playing sports, and cooking new recipes in his free time.
Eyrin is a sophomore at Stanford studying Symbolic Systems on the AI track and Sustainability. She has a deep passion for the climate space, sparked by her experience developing carbon capture processes at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Eyrin has also built products for SIRUM (the nation’s largest redistributor of unused medicine), ClimateAi (an AI-driven climate resilience platform), and Stanford University. When she is not pursuing opportunities to aggressively protect our beautiful planet, you can find her hiking, freestyle baking, and playing We’re Not Really Strangers.
Ben is a junior studying CS with a concentration in systems at Stanford. Previously, Ben interned at Lockheed Martin on their advanced programs team working on AI-enabled internal tools and Quantum Communication timing correction software. He has also interned for a six-person AI tooling startup founded by the former CTO of Lime. Additionally, he co-founded an RCS-powered text message marketing platform in the Keel accelerator last summer. He is deeply passionate about any deep tech solution, especially high-performance software and anything AR. In his free time, he likes running, rock climbing, and playing golf.
Shasi is a junior at UC Berkeley studying electrical engineering, computer science, and business. Previously, he has worked with Chevron (working closely with their corporate VC arm to screen investments in new energies) and Draper VC (where he was responsible for setting up their inaugural collegiate scouting program). With interests spanning deeptech and early stage investing, his passions lie in bringing together hardware founders, subject matter experts, and VCs to exchange ideas and best practices. Outside of work, Shasi enjoys travelling (30 countries and counting), playing tennis with friends, and watching motorsports.
Edward is a senior at UCSD studying Math-CS and Business Economics. He has worked with several early-stage startups on campus and gained venture experience at Crescent Fund and Spero Ventures, where he focused on startups building in aerospace, energy, manufacturing, and robotics. Currently, he’s working in product at Fileread, a seed-stage LegalTech startup in NYC, and leading Triton Ventures, an undergraduate VC club, where he aims to bring students together and ignite their interest in startups. Outside of work, Edward enjoys building new relationships with interesting people, going hiking, and watching soccer.
Jessica is a first year MBA student at Stanford. While in college, Jessica co-founded Fronen, a health food company making non-dairy ice cream using clean and simple ingredients. She spent the past seven years developing Fronen’s recipes and scaling the brand into grocery stores across the U.S., including Whole Foods Markets, Wegmans, and Natural Grocers. Jessica recently exited Fronen to a private investor group. Jessica is an avid animal lover and dog foster mom. She currently lives with her two rescue dogs, Vinny and Honey. Jessica graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in Public Policy.
Tony is a first-year MBA student at Stanford GSB and an ex-founder. As a high school dropout, Tony built the floorcoverings brand, Abolos. Abolos can be found at most major home improvement and decor retailers today. Most recently, Tony was a strategy consultant at Accenture, leading Accenture’s Advanced AI go-to-market and growth strategies. During the summer prior to attending GSB, he worked as a growth-stage investor at Redpoint Ventures with a focus on AI and software infrastructure investments. Tony received his B.S. from UC Berkeley. He enjoys spending his free time making hearty meals for friends, jamming with musicians, and reading the latest on Substack.
Angela is a PhD Candidate in an interdisciplinary program in Earth Systems and Computer Science at Stanford. Her research focuses on developing scalable models for satellite-based monitoring of sequestration and land cover for emerging traceability requirements like the EU Deforestation Regulation. She has also researched how policy incentives support climate tech innovation. Previously, she worked at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association on federal open data initiatives to apply artificial intelligence for analyzing climate insights in satellite & other streams of alternative data. Beyond climate tech and AI for sustainability, she has a love for emerging technology and the financial markets. In her free time, you’ll find her skiing, solving puzzles, or writing stories.
Sriya is a Junior studying Computer Science on the Artificial Intelligence track with a minor in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. Before DRF, she was flight software engineering intern at SpaceX and spent over five years engaged in computational medical research aimed at enhancing cardiovascular risk prediction. Currently, she’s developing Meshflow, a multi-agent AI based service that delivers tailored research to hedge fund managers. Passionate about education and inclusivity, she also teaches computer science sections and is working toward increasing inclusivity as a co-president of Stanford Women in Computer Science. In her free time, she enjoys oil painting, running, and challenging everyone to one 1v1 in FIFA, admitting her spirit often outmatches her game.
PHI & Southeast
Om is in the M&T program at the University of Pennsylvania, studying computer science and finance with a focus on cybersecurity and AI. He is currently early with Automorphic AI, building the future of LLM development tools, and previously worked on Microsoft Copilot and in cybersecurity at the U.S. Army. His previous endeavors include RFP automation software, synthetic data platforms, dynamic lesson plan generators, and AI friends. Outside of tech, Om is a member of the Penn wrestling team and enjoys backpacking and exploring the outdoors.
Jacob is a junior at the University of Pennsylvania, studying Politics, Philosophy, and Economics, with a minor in Consumer Psychology from the Wharton School. He has been passionate about entrepreneurship from a young age, having run his own graphic design business for the past six years where he works with clients in the sports and entertainment industries. Over the summer, Jacob is interning at Graham Partners, a private equity firm, where he’s gaining valuable experience in investment strategy. Originally from the Philadelphia suburbs, Jacob enjoys exploring creative ventures and has a deep appreciation for learning how businesses operate from the ground up.
Ian is a sophomore at Georgetown studying Neurobiology and Science, Technology & International Affairs with a focus on security and defense. Ian currently contributes to business development and operations at Guardian RF (YC S24), helping equalize asymmetry in drone warfare. Prior to joining Dorm Room Fund, he created a profitable D2C clothing brand and built a low-cost UberEats competitor. Originally from the DC area, Ian now divides time between the U.S. and Toronto. When he’s not in the lab, Ian enjoys distance running, obscure tech podcasts, and coffee..
Jo Cheng is an MBA candidate at Wharton and a community builder with a passion for empowering women at scale. Prior to Wharton, she worked at Primary VC where she built networks of talent. Her experience building communities of young professional women and working in venture capital has highlighted the gender gap that affects women’s lives and futures. Jo’s ambition is to identify and support technologies that can help bridge this gap. Originally from Taiwan, she grew up in Hong Kong and Irvine, California, and holds a BA in Medicine, Health, and Society from Vanderbilt University.
Anisha is a sophomore at UNC Chapel Hill, where she studies Economics and Computer Science as a Morehead-Cain and Coca-Cola scholar. Before joining Dorm Room Fund, she founded and sold a quantum computing education startup. She has since continued as the Director of Workforce Product at the acquiring company, Resonance Holdings. Her research experience includes a fellowship at Google X, co-authoring the first quantum textbook for students, and building an SMS app tackling under-5 mortality in Nigeria. Her work has led to speaking engagements at over 60 conferences, including The Economist and Evoke, and she serves on the advisory boards of several organizations. In her free time, Anisha enjoys trying new recipes, scuba diving, traveling, and spending time with friends and family.
Katie is a junior at Duke University studying Computer Science. Her belief in the power of storytelling led her to take a year off from college to build Story, a social media consultancy that helps artists and entrepreneurs develop their personal brands online. She loves creating content online, sharing her insights on social media strategy and branding to her audience of over 150k. Previously, Katie worked within Night’s startup incubator, launching businesses for creators like Mr. Beast, and is the president of Creator Lab at Duke. She is excited to join DRF to invest in the passionate students who are changing the world.
Anna Marie is a first-year MBA student at Wharton and is interested in entrepreneurship, venture capital, and healthcare/biotech. Prior to Wharton, Anna Marie worked in business development at an early stage healthcare services startup focused on providing large-scale Covid-19 testing to various businesses and municipalities during the global pandemic. Anna Marie then worked as a project manager at a seed stage healthtech startup backed by Redesign Health and worked to alleviate the healthcare staffing shortage. Anna Marie graduated from Stanford University with a BS in Human Biology and an MS in Biology. Anna Marie loves to run, read, and eat (there is no food she doesn’t like). She is also a big Philly sports fan — go Birds!
Advika is studying Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Prior to DRF, she had a successful startup exit and has experience ranging from product to software engineering at WisprAI and MongoDB. Currently at CMU, she does speech processing research at Watanabe’s Audio and Voice Lab. As an Innovation Scholar, she leads CMU’s Entrepreneurship Association, helping students build and launch their ideas. In her free time, Advika studies classical Indian music theory and enjoys singing and composing.
NYC & Midwest:
Momoko is a fifth-year PhD candidate in Environment and Environmental Engineering at Yale. A chemist by training, her research focuses on converting CO2 into commodity chemicals. Her venture journey began as a product innovator for L’Oréal, to innovate sunscreen formulations. This past summer, she was a Mosaic Fellow through Impact Capital Managers, hosted by Clean Energy Ventures. She grew up in Discovery Bay, Hong Kong, with a traditional, very British upbringing, and enjoys pole dancing and country club sports.
Jeff Kaminsky is a 2nd year MBA Candidate at NYU Stern, where he is co-president of the Entrepreneurship and Startup Association. Prior to NYU Stern, he was at Salesforce for over 6 years, working at the intersection of product and customer success. Jeff’s love of startups can be traced back to his day’s at General Assembly, when it was still a co-working space. Outside of tech and school, Jeff is an avid pizza maker and owner of La Bicyclette Pizza.
Kieran is a senior at Michigan State University, where he studies mechanical engineering and is involved in robotics research. He has previously worked in aerospace engineering at PPG Aerospace, industrial engineering at Dow, and consulting at EY-Parthenon. As a born-and-raised Michigander, he actively advocates for Midwest startups and venture capital through the Midwest Ventures Conference. Kieran’s interests lie in the worlds of hardtech, frontiertech, deeptech, and all things advanced manufacturing and robotics. In his spare time, he loves following college basketball and lacrosse, reading science fiction, learning new music on the cello, and enjoying all things outdoors.
Linda is an MBA candidate at the Yale School of Management. Previously, she spent her career in startupland– first as the community manager at the Harvard Innovation Labs, then as the first employee and chief of staff at fintech startup Juno, which has secured over $1B in more affordable student loans to-date. Most recently, Linda launched the Gold House Futures vertical at Gold House, championing the next generation of Asian Pacific Islander leaders. She built grant programs and accelerators for grassroots non-profits, emerging music artists, filmmakers, journalists, and more, while also leading the Gold House Ventures Accelerator for early-stage founders. Outside of work, you can catch her hosting dinner parties, hitting errant golf shots, yelling at F1 races, and discovering new indie music.
Brielee (Brie) is a senior at NYU Stern studying Entrepreneurship, Finance, and Art History. Before DRF, she was on the founding team of Soma Capital’s scout program and built startups in the consumer space. On campus, she helps lead the Entrepreneurs Exchange Group. She is a huge animal lover and enjoys art, fashion, and card games. However, her biggest passion of all is talking to new people — especially those who seek outlier experiences and are drawn to a healthy dose of chaos..
Catherine is a junior at the University of Michigan, where she studies business with minors in biology and statistics. Before joining Dorm Room Fund, she gained experience as a summer associate at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a business development intern at a medtech startup, and a physical therapy technician. On campus, Catherine serves as the president of the Private Equity & Venture Capital club, is an investment associate for the Social Venture Fund- an early-stage, impact investing fund — and participates in the Pinkert Healthcare Accelerator. Passionate about using investing to drive healthcare innovation, Catherine is particularly focused on health equity, personalized medicine, the consumerization of healthcare, and emerging economies. In her free time, she enjoys working out, cooking, reading, listening to podcasts, and attending concerts and sporting events.
Omo Tseumah is a first-year MBA student at Columbia Business School, a Forte Fellow and Consortium member. Focused on entrepreneurship and venture capital, she’s passionate about building and scaling impactful products. Previously, Omo led product marketing initiatives within Google’s hardware organization, spearheading cross-functional collaborations for major events like I/O and Made by Google, launching numerous products and features, and managing multi-million dollar budgets. She is also passionate about building pathways for the BIPOC community to enter the entrepreneurial and tech ecosystems. As a former track and field athlete at Marquette University, Omo enjoys staying active, traveling (20+ countries and counting!), and exploring museums and galleries.
Jack is a sophomore at UChicago studying Philosophy and Economics. Prior to DRF, he launched an international keyboard company from his hometown of Melbourne, Australia. Jack has also worked on the investment team at Techstars in NYC and Chicago — focusing on Fintech and Healthcare solutions. He also loves classical singing, techno, great coffee, and learning about philosophy (especially consciousness).
Vishal is a Computer Science student at Columbia University. Prior to joining Dorm Room Fund, he co-founded a FinTech company working on couples’ banking as a part of the Y Combinator S21 batch. In the past, he interned in multiple Software Engineering roles. Vishal is originally from Orlando, Florida. He loves basketball, film, and coffee.
Caroline is a junior at Cornell studying applied economics & management and computer science. She built out Cornell’s entrepreneurship scene at Life Changing Labs and is currently working on an exciting creator-focused startup! Previously, she’s also worked at Deloitte, Touchdown Ventures, and JUV Consulting developing creator campaigns for Fortune 500 companies. Caroline is a lifelong artist and loves anything to do with creative industries. In her free time, Caroline can be found hunching over a canvas, designing wacky clothes, and learning to figure skate.
BOS & Northeast:
Tafarii is a first-year MBA student at MIT Sloan. She previously led Uber’s Product Equity team as a Sr. Product Manager, launching features that fostered equity within Uber’s marketplace. Before joining Uber, Tafarii was a PM at a Series B SaaS startup in NYC. She is a native New Yorker and graduated from Williams College with a BA in Computer Science.
Kevin is a sophomore at MIT studying computer science and math. He previously built AI companions at Tomo AI and did ML computational biology research at Lawrence Livermore National Lab. On campus, he’s involved with research through MIT CSAIL and MIT Media Lab. Kevin is also a HackMIT organizer and a member of MIT Entrepreneurship Club and MIT AI Alignment. He was a member of MIT’s varsity volleyball team and is involved with his fraternity Sigma Chi. In his free time, he enjoys playing volleyball, traveling, taking scenic walks, and watching Boston sunsets.
Kyle is a first-year MBA student at Harvard Business School. Before HBS, he worked for 4 years at Glasswing Ventures, where he focused on pre-seed and seed stage enterprise AI. He also spent two stints at spin-outs of MIT CSAIL focused on customer discovery and process building for the earliest stage startups. As an investor and die-hard supporter of entrepreneurs, Kyle aspires to be the consigliere (as depicted in any good mafia movie) to founders, a partner for the thorniest issues and fixer in the most consequential moments. He also enjoys putting his opinions down on paper in the form of short blog posts in a series he calls Renaissance and shares on his website and LinkedIn. In his spare moments, Kyle is an Ironman triathlete, skier, concert-goer, and, most importantly, dedicated son, brother, and friend.
Sofia is a senior at Harvard concentrating in Applied Mathematics and Economics with a secondary in Statistics. Prior to joining Dorm Room Fund, Sofia interned as a Business Intelligence Engineer in the Supply Chain Optimization team at Amazon, and as a summer associate at the Boston Consulting Group. At Harvard, she serves as the president of Harvard Ventures and a teaching fellow for the two entrepreneurship classes offered to undergraduates, and she is overall very passionate about supporting student entrepreneurship. In her free time Sofia enjoys playing tennis, running, and exploring new restaurants.
Elijah is a second year software engineering student at the University. He’s currently an ML engineer working on building multimodal generative models. Before this, he fabricated semiconductors, commoditized stem cells, and participated in Alzheimer’s Disease research. He previously built embedded systems and predictive models for two startups. He enjoys playing basketball, writing songs, and (occasionally) DJ-ing.
Edgar is a fourth-year at Northeastern University studying health science and psychology. He initially pursued medicine, working as a clinician at Boston Children’s Hospital and researcher at Columbia’s INCITE lab. Now, he works to bolster innovation for human health and wellbeing — previously building a research participant marketplace and operating at various start-ups (seed-Series A). In addition to joining the DRF team, Edgar works as a Growth Lead at Adni and Fellow at Merck Digital Sciences Studio. In his free time, you can find him cooking for friends, hiking, reading fiction, and volunteering as a quadriplegic caretaker!
Ben Horwitz is a first-year MBA student at Harvard Business School. Before HBS, Ben co-founded Causeway, a platform for charitable giving that was acquired by Charity Navigator. Post-acquisition, Ben joined Charity Navigator as vice president of New Ventures, where he designed new products, led investments in philanthropic technology, and secured major corporate partnerships. Ben has also held roles in emerging market growth at Meta, and as a consultant at Prophet, focused on enterprise growth strategy. Ben is originally from Tucson, Arizona and holds a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Haverford College. You can find him on the tennis court, hiking, or drinking chocolate milk with friends.
HQ
Aaron is a student at McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management. He founded McGill’s venture capital club, growing it into the third largest club under the management faculty. Aaron also freelances for BetaKit, Canada’s innovation publication of record. Previously, Aaron helped pioneer CheckSammy’s sustainability department as an early employee. In his spare time, he can be found haunting random startup ecosystem events and conferences across Canada.
Austin is a sophomore at Stanford studying Symbolic Systems with a concentration in AI. Along with Dorm Room Fund, Austin does product and growth at Locket Labs and runs the DeepTech and Biotech fellowship at Cardinal Ventures. This past summer, he was an intern at Amplify, investing in pre-seed enterprise SaaS. Austin is deeply interested in building consumer products that influence behavior and culture, as well as their applications in healthcare. In his free time, Austin enjoys playing basketball, watching the Boston Celtics, and going on hikes!
Arshia is a current sophomore at UC Berkeley studying Business & Data Science. Prior to joining the Dorm Room Fund as the head of design, she studied abroad in London in her freshman fall semester through Haas’ Global Management Program, worked in product marketing at the Nissan Motor Corporation, and founded her own social impact startup: Groundify. On campus, Arshia serves as the head of internal and works in the design department at Blockchain at Berkeley. In her free time, she loves to travel, spend time outdoors, and hang out with her friends and family.
Michael is a student at Stanford studying Computer Science (BS), Economics, and Management Science & Engineering (MS). Previously, he built and launched AI products at Palantir, The Marriage Pact, Stanford AI Laboratory, Pear VC, and 8VC. He has lived around the world in cities spanning both coasts, China, and Italy, which has given him a deep interest in history, culture, and linguistics. In his free time, Michael loves playing basketball, brewing coffee, and snapping photos; drop him a message to chat about these things or anything else!
Written by Head of Editorial Aaron Anandji.
For more updates, follow us on our X, Medium, and newsletter. Founders, apply for an investment from us. 🚀