Here at Stevens, one of the most admirable experiences a student can have is seeing their work come to fruition. Whether it be a successful Senior Design Project, a well-received Music & Technology publication, or a Bloomberg Challenge-winning team of students from the School of Business, it is inspiring to see Stevens students succeed, but even more so when a relationship forms between students. One program here at the Stevens School of Business does just that. Through mentoring, experiential learning, and industry programs, Rocket Fuel Ventures (RFV) is a team of students ready to make more Stevens success stories.
The Stute reached out to RFV Head of Internal Affairs Evan Bravstein, a class of 2025 Finance major at Stevens. Bravstein explained how the RFV is a student-run organization that focuses on exploring the world of venture capital. According to Forbes, “Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity that funds startups and early-stage emerging companies with little to no operating history but significant potential for growth.” However, VC is often a tricky yet lucrative investment strategy. Bravstein explained, “We [RFV] learn how to communicate with venture capital firms and startups, and we work with startups by writing investment memos and helping them receive funding and investments from venture capital firms.”
RFV, while a new organization, has already seen much success here on campus. Since its founding in 2020 by Brian Li, a Mechanical Engineering major from the class of 2022, RFV has already hosted a well-attended international summit in 2021, as seen in an article from Stevens, where Li explained that founding RFV was a way of embodying Stevens’ interdisciplinary nature between the School of Engineering and Sciences and the School of Business, a partnership that Li believes helps RFV accurately reflect world-world investment environments.
RFV is an organization that connects students from across many different majors, schools, years, and interests. By including such a diverse collection of individuals, RFV can consider the knowledge from many aspects of a product, service, or company. Additionally, with the success of their first summit, which included speakers from firms that invested in companies like LinkedIn, Yelp, and Twitch, RFV was able to show a widespread and continued interest in VC at Stevens.
Organizations like RFV are part of why Stevens continues to be a leader in producing graduates ready for the industry with experience in real-life situations. With interdisciplinary work from students like Li and Bravstein, RFV is a successful way for students at Stevens to dive into experiential learning and develop life-long skills. As a parting note, The Stute asked Bravstein some of the best parts of RFV: “managing the members, working with my excellent executive board, and growing my personal knowledge, and the knowledge of our members, about the world of venture capital.”
