Announcing TEC 2010

Our mission at True is to make entrepreneurs’ dreams come true. It is a bold and ambitious objective and, to make it even more challenging, we do not just focus on the entrepreneurs we fund. Rather, we would like to help all entrepreneurs, including the entrepreneurs of tomorrow. This was our thinking 12 months ago when we conceived the initial True Entrepreneur Corps (TEC) internship program. Our goal was to create an opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs to plug into Silicon Valley and the heart of innovation for an eight week period to see what the inside of a startup looks like and feels like. We wanted the TEC interns to meet as many influencers in the entrepreneurial ecosystem as possible, we wanted them to get a crash course on venture capital, and we wanted to deliver an internship experience that they would never forget. Oh yeah—and we wanted to do all of this for college students finishing their sophomore and junior years so that they could return to campus and use the remainder of their undergraduate experience to prepare for a career as an entrepreneur, if they so chose. TEC 2009 was a great success, and we learned a lot. This year, we are using that learning to create an even bigger, even better TEC program.

The requirements for TEC 2010 are the same as they were last summer: we are looking for smart, motivated, creative undergraduates in the classes of 2011 and 2012 who are eager to join a startup for eight weeks to share their talents and experience firsthand what it is like to be a part of the True entrepreneurial network. Students should expect to work on a variety of projects across engineering, marketing, research, business development, and other areas, depending on their backgrounds and individual company needs.

More information on TEC is available here, including application materials for 2010. There are also links to profiles of the 2009 group, the blog they wrote chronicling their summers in and out of the office, and a video they produced that gives prospective applicants a great feel for the kind of experience they are in for. The deadline for this year’s applications is April 2, 2010.

The continuation of the TEC program is another step that we are pleased to take to help provide support for young entrepreneurs and for the companies with which we are privileged to work. We look forward to meeting this summer’s TEC class in June and encourage interested students or other affiliated university staff members to contact us at TEC [at] trueventures [dot] com with questions or comments about the program.