InSITE Fellows Washington University in St. Louis – Testimonials
Emre Toker
Managing Director
Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Washington University in St. Louis
Read Emre’s Letter of Support
Wash U Affiliate Testimonials:
Law Student
InSITE transformed my entire graduate school experience. I arrived at WashU believing I would be at school three years and practice law once I graduated. At the end of my first year, I heard about the InSITE Fellowship and learned that the organization would launch the WashU chapter the next academic year. I joined the board as VP of Recruiting and became a team lead on one of our initial projects. From the beginning, InSITE opened my eyes to possibilities I did not believe were available to me. I attended both the NYC and Bay Area treks and, in addition to meeting amazing Fellows from top schools across the country, was able to meet VCs, entrepreneurs, top law firms, and people from more established companies like Twitter and Google. I remember telling a Fellow from Stanford on the NYC trek that I knew this world existed but had never before believed I could be a part of it.
Following my first year as a Fellow, I decided to pursue an MBA degree in addition to my JD. I have had the opportunity to lead two additional projects and am currently serving as the president for the WashU InSITE chapter. My experience with InSITE positioned me to take on the team lead role in a consulting project for a premier midwest private equity firm through WashU’s MBA program. The project was so successful that I was asked to join the firm during my last year at WashU with the intention of moving into a full time role upon graduation. Once I received the offer, I was able to reach out to a Fellow from Harvard I met at SXSW who interned with a private equity firm over the summer and ask him about his experience and gain valuable insight into how I could prepare myself to be successful in my new role. InSITE is much more than a consulting program, it is a powerful network of like-minded men and women who have a vested interest in seeing each other succeed. My best friends from my time at WashU have come through InSITE, both at WashU and across the county. These will be my most meaningful connections throughout my career and I am forever indebted to InSITE for them.
Phd in Biomedical Engineering
InSITE completely changed the trajectory of my career. As an engineering PhD student at a research institution like Wash U, it’s very easy to get lost in the shuffle once you realize that you don’t want to pursue an academic position at a university after the completion of your thesis. About three years into my thesis-work, it became very clear to me that the traditional academic track simply didn’t fit my personality and long-term vision of my career. I’m an extroverted individual who enjoys being surrounded by people of different professional backgrounds, but the laboratory environment can be very solitary while your interactions are typically limited to those with similar scientific backgrounds.
InSITE became one of a few extracurricular opportunities I pursued in order to broaden my horizons and explore other career paths, and it quickly became the most impactful in terms of influencing my career choices post-PhD. Of the four projects in which I participated over my two years of involvement, I filled the role of team-lead for two of them. The opportunities to direct projects with individuals from backgrounds crossing the spectrum of law, business, and science were invaluable, especially considering the breadth of project focuses we were exposed to. Integrating with entrepreneurs, accelerators, and institutional investors both within our local ecosystem in St Louis, as well as the broader ecosystem through the yearly SXSW trip, opened my eyes to a world that I truly didn’t know existed considering my scientific background. All of these experiences collectively have given me the courage and confidence to pursue a career as a serial-entrepreneur, currently as a full-time co-founder of a medical technology startup company based in St. Louis. InSITE truly has a special place in my life, and I hope as my career moves forward I continue to have opportunities to pay it forward with future program fellows.
Elise Miller Hoffman
Principal
Cultivation Capital
The InSITE Fellowship was the capstone experience of my graduate education. As the founding President for the Washington University chapter, I had the opportunity to build an executive board team, recruit startups to work with our organization, and select fellows that would help us build the InSITE brand in St. Louis. While our mission was to provide consulting services for entrepreneurs, we were entrepreneurs ourselves as we worked to build an organization that addressed the needs of our two stakeholder groups: startups and students.
InSITE is the gift that keeps on giving through its alumni network. I currently work as a venture capital fund manager and having connections in our industry is key to finding talent, getting in the best deals, and helping our portfolio companies raise money. In the past three months, various InSITE alumni have given me a referral for an analyst who I hired, connected one of my portfolio companies to a top VC firm, and helped a friend of mine who was applying to her company. In fact, one of my fellow WashU InSITE fellows who went on to lead a biotech startup recently pitched my fund, and we are considering an investment in their company!
The InSITE Fellowship is an opportunity to get your feet wet, immerse yourself in the startup world, and join a nationwide network of future entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.