Welcome to the VWV Group Independent Study Program
​Fulfilling its core mission of democratizing venture capital (VC) education, Van Wickle Ventures is excited to offer an insightful curriculum each spring to the Brown student body as a Group Independent Study Program (GISP). Our fourth iteration, titled Venture Capital and Impact Investing: Aligning Profit with Purpose is a course sponsored by Adjunct Professor Ricardo Bayon at the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society (IBES) and our co-directors for the new rotating class of analysts at VWV as well as Brown students interested in the world of venture.
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The purpose of this GISP is to provide an introduction to venture capital (VC) and explore how early-stage investing can be leveraged not only to generate financial returns but to drive environmental and social progress. We aim to interrogate the contemporary role of private capital in shaping innovation, address questions at the intersection of finance and impact, and critically examine how investors can align profit with purpose and whether VC is an ideal vehicle to do so. This course will be consist of numerous guest lectures, discussions, and presentations to give students a deep and nuanced understanding of the asset class.
This course is open to students of all semester levels, without pre-requisites and regardless of specific concentration. If you are an undergraduate student at Brown seeking to apply to the version of this Group Independent Study Program next semester, you can review the syllabus (link coming soon) and fill out the interest application form (link). We hope to see you all there!
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Note: if you are a RISD student and/or a graduate student (Brown or RISD) interested in taking this course, please contact the student coordinators for more details.