We are excited to announce the return of our flagship VC training course, this time under a brand new name: Venture Capital Unlocked: Secrets of Silicon Valley Investing. The program will be held on February 8-19, 2016. 

500 Startups is once again teaming up with the Stanford Center for Professional Development to run our popular two-week course. In it, we reveal our insider secrets on how to WIN the investment game, from unlocking deal flow to evaluating companies. 

HOW IT ALL STARTED

We received countless requests from investors and partners curious to learn how we went from a handful of people to the most active seed investor in the world. With 1400 companies in our portfolio in less than five years, we’ve kept the secrets to our success locked away, until now. 

We recently ran a successful pilot of the program under the name “Insider’s Guide to Silicon Valley Investing.” Over two intensive weeks, 34 participants (43% women) developed their investment theses with the help of Stanford faculty, analyzed VC trends, screened pitches from founders raising capital, conducted assessments following Demo Day, and visited top accelerators in the Valley (whew!).  

WHAT PARTICIPANTS ARE SAYING

Participants had nothing but #500LOVE for the course and gave it a net promoter score of 9.6! But don’t take it from us. Here is what some of our previous course participants had to say:

“I came in wanting to invest in every angel investment deal that came my way. I left with an understanding of my area of expertise and a clear investment thesis. 

The highlight for me was the commitment that Dave, Bedy and the the entire 500 team had for each of the participants to get significant value.

In fact at times I caught myself thinking that how could Dave reveal all his secrets and learnings gained from his experience of investing in almost 1000 startups.

The diversity of the 35 participants was equally impressive with only 20% from the U.S. and the balance from all over the world. Needless to say that it was a very valuable 2 weeks and it’s saved me a ton of money which I would have wasted in investing outside my area of competence and outside my thesis.”

— Piyush Chawla, Angel Investor, India 

“The program was an amazing blend of practice and theory, due to the 500 and Stanford partnership…the cohort itself was made of incredible individuals that brought in diverse and insightful perspectives across many geographies and vantage points on the investing value-chain.

I learned a great deal from the cohort and am still exchanging knowledge and connections with many of them after the course has finished.

500 and Stanford’s commitment to diversity, women, and impact shone through incredibly. Many of the investors in the course are making an impact in developing geographies and/or catalyzing innovation for under-served communities.”

— Meredith Karazin, LearnLab Accelerator, China

NEXT SESSION IN FEBRUARY

As we roll out the next session, we are looking to add even more content and stellar speakers. 

We will be bringing back top-rated workshops from last year, as well as site visits to key accelerators. We also plan to have more sessions with major players in the Silicon Valley. Participants will also learn how to assess companies in each vertical. Stay tuned for more details.

The program is filling up fast. Apply now and learn how to unlock the secrets of venture capital.