Venture capitalist, Waterloo Engineering graduate and former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya returned to the University of Waterloo on May 9 to announce a new Social Capital Fellows program that will pair top Waterloo engineering students with innovative startups in Silicon Valley.
He urged Waterloo Engineering students to think outside the box and join nascent startups with the potential to drive billion dollar growth and change the status quo in fields such as health care and education.
Attending the Waterloo announcement were Ray Ko, Growth Partner at The Social+Capital Partnership; Dhananja Jayalath, Founder/CEO and Waterloo alumnus from Athos; Jason Fischl, VP of Engineering at Remind101; Maryann Vellanikaran, VP of Engineering at brilliant.org; Sean Doran, VP of Delivery at Wave; Nick Presta, Back-End Developer at Wave; Mani Fazeli, Product and Development Manager at Wave; Ben McRedmond, Director of Growth at intercom.io; and Chris Dzoba, Software Engineer at CreativeLive.
Waterloo engineers, already in high demand in Silicon Valley, earn over $110 million in co-op income annually as part of the world’s largest co-op program.
Palihapitiya promised more, including a “meaningfully higher co-op salary” than what Silicon Valley’s tech giants are currently offering and for “outstanding” Fellows, fully vested equity in the portfolio company for which they develop product.
Our goal is to create the most prestigious program in the co-op landscape. We’re offering more money, equity and exposure to the next swath of billion dollar companies. We want students who are pregnant with ideas. As a VC, we take a lot of risks. We behave like entrepreneurs behave and we want students who are seeking entrepreneurship.
Chamath Palihapitiya - Founder and Managing Partner of The Social+Capital Partnership
Palihapitiya is the Founder and Managing Partner of The Social+Capital Partnership (Social Capital) - a venture capital fund based in Palo Alto, California that incubates and invests in breakthrough companies in healthcare, education, financial services, mobile and enterprise software.
Social Capital Fellows, he said, will comprise an elite group of engineers, working on inspiring and impactful technical problems and building intimate relationships with developers, entrepreneurs, and investors in Silicon Valley.
Preceding his focus as an investor, Palihapitiya was the longest tenured member of Facebook's senior executive team and helped drive its ascension to one of the most important companies in the world. He is co-owner and a director of the NBA's Golden State Warriors.