Threshold Venture Fellows

The application for the 2025-2026 cohort is now closed. 

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Develop leadership skills for the venture ecosystem

Handcrafted for twelve Stanford master’s students interested in entrepreneurial ventures, the Threshold Venture Fellows (TVF) program provides a front-row seat to the world of venture creation. Fellows meet weekly for classroom sessions, guest speakers, and in-depth discussions about launching and leading high-growth, high-impact organizations. In addition, each Fellow will be paired with both an Executive Mentor and an Alumni Mentor. The aim is to not only build knowledge and skills, but also to form a deep community among both present and alumni TVF fellows.

Current Cohort

Yousef Al-Riyami

Design (MS)

Jasper Burns

JD/MBA in Law and Business Administration

Trent DiCicco

Management Science and Engineering

Meredith Gee

MBA

Kelsey Goune

Translational Research and Applied Medicine

Dandi Hardy

MBA & MS Environment and Resources

Rahul Penumaka

MS Translational Research and Applied Medicine/MBA

Ottavia Personeni

Aeronautics and Astronautics

Mehrzad Sajjadi

AI, Robotics, Biotech, MBA

Elena Sapelyuk

International Policy

Erica Zhou

MS in Management Science and Engineering

Lucy Zimmerman

Computer Science

Year-at-a-Glance

WINTER/SPRING

Tuesdays | 4:00 – 5:30 pm

Fellows are immersed in the entrepreneurial mindset through group discussions, interaction with speakers, industry and alumni mentors,  and building community. Fellows meet weekly, primarily at the offices of Threshold Ventures in Palo Alto.

Curriculum Highlights

  • The Art of the Cold Email – Heidi Roizen
  • How to build a DecaCorn – Aidan Madigan-Curtis
  • How to start a company right out of Stanford – alumni panel
  • Ethics – Brandon Farwell, Partner, X Fund
  • How to build a successful company – Adam Lowry, founder, Method Soap
  • VC 101 – Heidi Roizen and Aidan Madigan-Curtis

The curriculum is highly fluid and constantly evolves based on what students are interested in learning and what is currently topical.

There is also a weekend offsite to Lake Tahoe, where the students will take deeper dives into topics of interest as well as enjoy Tahoe’s beauty through hikes and other activities.

Teaching Team

Headshot image of Heidi Roizen

Heidi Roizen

Adjunct Lecturer, MS&E

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Headshot image of Aidan Madigan-Curtis

Aidan Madigan-Curtis

Partner, Eclipse Ventures

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Program Information

The Threshold Venture Fellows (TVF) program was created to serve the specific needs of Stanford master’s students, who often have previous career experiences yet have limited time to pursue entrepreneurial activities while at Stanford. As the Fellowship is relationship and engagement-driven, we seek to admit fellows who learn best from others and bring diverse perspectives to their cohort.

Fellows meet weekly during Winter and Spring quarters for in-depth discussions about launching and leading high-growth, high-impact organizations. Class guests, including Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, lawyers, and venture capitalists, will be invited to give talks about their personal experiences. Topics include raising venture capital, giving a pitch, risk-taking and failure, ethical dilemmas, and work-life balance. Fellows will also have the opportunity to participate in hands-on workshops – past workshops have been on topics like negotiation, public speaking, cold email writing and storytelling.

A key focus of the fellowship is building relationships across both Stanford and Silicon Valley. Fellows gain access to rich mentorship opportunities from industry leaders and TVF alumni. Fellows will also have the opportunity to build community with students from across the Stanford ecosystem. A cohort retreat will take place early on in the program, and fellows often form enduring friendships. Upon completion, fellows will join the highly active TVF alumni network.

ELIGIBILITY:

  • Master’s & co-term students (co-term students must be in the final year of their co-terminal program)
  • Must be an active Stanford student during the program
  • Students from any major or school are encouraged to apply
  • Eligible students are encouraged to apply, regardless of previous entrepreneurial experience. However, previous career experience is preferred.

Testimonials

Alumni

AcknowledgEments

STVP offers sincere appreciation to Threshold for supporting this opportunity for Stanford students.

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