The Next Generation of Builders: Meet the 2026 NEA Fellows

At NEA, we've believed in the power of teamwork since our founding nearly five decades ago — not just collaboration among colleagues, but the kind that bridges generations. We know that the aspiring entrepreneurs, curious researchers, and out-of-the-box thinkers of today will become the pioneering founders and builders of tomorrow, and we don't want to miss a chance to get a glimpse of what's ahead.

The NEA Fellowship

In 2018, we launched the inaugural NEA Fellowship — a summer internship program connecting talented undergrads with portfolio companies. What began as a summer program has since evolved into a semester-long engagement in which Fellows work directly alongside NEA's investment team. We aim to give students authentic, hands-on exposure to the business of venture capital, and we're consistently impressed by the contributions they make along the way.

The Spring 2026 class was no exception. Our largest cohort yet — 15 students from 10 universities — arrived with remarkable enthusiasm, sharp academic credentials, genuine curiosity, and thoughtful investment theses.

Meet the 2026 Fellows

Veronica Agudelo

What is one of your favorite projects or learnings from the Fellowship?

I enjoyed conducting due diligence on startups to analyze all aspects of the business — from technical architecture and GTM motion to customer use cases, competitive landscape, cohort data, pipeline forecasts, and unit economics. I was also invited to sit in on company calls, contribute directly, and share my work with partners and founders, which made the experience feel very hands-on. Lastly, being paired with a mentor throughout has been wonderful — I've felt comfortable pressure-testing my thinking, asking questions, and getting feedback, which made the learning curve feel both sharp and really supported!

How has the fellowship shaped (or reinforced) your interest in startups and venture?

The fellowship has amplified my interest in startups and venture tremendously, largely because of its generalist structure and opportunities to contribute to projects across all sectors — exposing me to industries I didn't even know existed (and am now excited about) and teaching me a remarkable amount about the many systems working together to make our world work. It's also been a great reminder of how exciting early-stage investing is, because the technologies we're analyzing are so new and many haven't gone mainstream yet.

Araash Ahuja

What is one of your favorite projects or learnings from the Fellowship?

Getting a better understanding the important roles valuation and deal structure plan in the decision process.

How has the fellowship shaped (or reinforced) your interest in startups and venture?

It's revealed a few areas of tech I never previously looked at that I'm inclined to dig into out of curiosity.

Anika Chebrolu

What is one of your favorite projects or learnings from the Fellowship?

Researching the AI GRC space to support due diligence on a potential investment. I enjoyed diving into the history of predecessors and competitors in an unfamiliar sector, but most of all, discussing my findings with my mentors at NEA. I'm grateful for those conversations, which shaped how I think about the space and where the most interesting opportunities lie!

How has the fellowship shaped (or reinforced) your interest in startups and venture?

NEA has exposed me to a variety of new areas of technology, from e-commerce to AI infrastructure to neolabs. Researching investments within these spaces alongside my mentors has helped me develop my own perspectives on where the most interesting opportunities lie, deepening my curiosity about the venture ecosystem.

Albert Chen

What is one of your favorite projects or learnings from the Fellowship?

My favorite learning from the fellowship has been discovering all the considerations that great venture capitalists think about that may be unintuitive from a builder's perspective — concepts like fund structure, reserve strategy, entry equity, and pro rata — made practical through the close mentorship of NEA's investors.

How has the fellowship shaped (or reinforced) your interest in startups and venture?

It's given me a deeper appreciation for the symbiotic relationship between great founders and great investors. I think if you want to be a successful founder raising outside capital, it's imperative to understand how venture thinks. That way you're not naive at the table and can build partnerships where incentives are genuinely aligned.

Aashka Dave

What is one of your favorite projects or learnings from the Fellowship?

My favorite learnings from the fellowship have been stress testing a thesis and asking questions from different angles to deepen understanding of a space. My favorite project has been working on the AI memory thesis and building out a people intelligence layer.

How has the fellowship shaped (or reinforced) your interest in startups and venture?

The fellowship has reinforced how excited I am about startups and venture — diving into new spaces has piqued so much curiosity, and being close to real deals and companies is energizing. Whether building a thesis on AI memory or SaaS, there's always something new to learn. What has shaped my experience most is the access to mentors and seeing how experienced investors think and stress test their own conviction. The fellowship has given me real ownership over areas I wanted to explore and pushed me to form my own opinions — getting those reps in early and actually doing the work has been really valuable.

Eshaan Doke

What is one of your favorite projects or learnings from the Fellowship?

Assisting with the diligence for a live process, including participation in founder/company meetings, expert calls, and internal team discussions/debriefs.

How has the fellowship shaped (or reinforced) your interest in startups and venture?

The fellowship has reinforced my interest in startups and venture, as it has given me a front-row seat to how leading investors dive deep across markets and empower and support visionary founders. Executing live diligence and engaging in expert calls and founder meetings has shown me how much I enjoy the analytical yet creative process of finding the next category-defining ideas and companies early.

Daniel Eldridge

What is one of your favorite projects or learnings from the Fellowship?

Helping with data initiatives and technical architecture.

How has the fellowship shaped (or reinforced) your interest in startups and venture?

It has been great to learn more about the approach to venture that such a large institutional powerhouse has compared with previous experiences and others within the industry.

Nika Farokhzad

How has the fellowship shaped (or reinforced) your interest in startups and venture?

I came into the program with experience primarily in sourcing and light diligence. What I didn't anticipate — and what has proven most educational — is the transparency with which NEA educates its fellows. NEA places a generous degree of trust in its fellowship class, immersing them headfirst into live deals and the firm's inner workings. The most informative moments have been when my mentor Alexa walked me through cap tables and the active rationale behind firm decisions — shaping my understanding of venture through both actionable knowledge (how to navigate data rooms, what differentiates a strong cap table) and subjective guidance (how to approach a career in venture, what makes investors compelling, how to source). It is in these moments that NEA's ethos has come most alive. I'm enormously appreciative of my experience and feel I'm exiting the program a more informed and intentional investor than when I entered.

Mia Garvey

What is one of your favorite projects or learnings from the Fellowship?

My favorite project has been building an AI-powered "personal investor memory" tool. Not only has this been an interesting technical build, but it has pushed me to think more critically about how investment decisions get made and deeply understand the mind and workflow of an investor. It also complemented my other project, the AI memory thesis, as I got to experiment with memory tools and implement my learnings from that thesis in practice.

How has the fellowship shaped (or reinforced) your interest in startups and venture?

It's reinforced my interest by giving me direct exposure to founders and how they think, build, and make decisions. Being in conversations with them made it clear that venture is about understanding people — conviction, how they navigate uncertainty, and how their thinking evolves over time — rather than just evaluating markets or metrics. It also pushed me to engage more critically with ideas, whether through my own projects or by forming perspectives on the founders and companies I was seeing. That shift to actually building and testing my own views made me much more excited about working closely with founders and operating at the intersection of startups and venture.

Rhea Jethvani

What is one of your favorite projects or learnings from the Fellowship?

Sitting in on expert insight calls with Mason has been one of the most valuable parts of the fellowship. It gave me exposure to how early-stage ideas are pressure-tested in real time, especially around regulatory complexity and enterprise adoption. Even just observing those conversations helped me better understand how investment decisions get shaped beyond surface-level product evaluation.

How has the fellowship shaped (or reinforced) your interest in startups and venture?

The fellowship made startups feel much more tangible to me, especially seeing how much nuance goes into evaluating something beyond just the idea itself. It reinforced that I’m drawn to environments where I can stay close to real work and decisions as they’re happening. It also made me more intentional about the kinds of problems and teams I find worth spending time on.

Claire Miao

What is one of your favorite projects or learnings from the Fellowship?

I really loved looking at the public safety sector with James and the different technologies being used because I've never explored the space before!

How has the fellowship shaped (or reinforced) your interest in startups and venture?

The NEA fellowship has allowed me to both do high-level exploration into fields I previously never knew about and in-depth research into areas I was already interested in. I've loved just talking to my NEA mentor, other team members, and attending events because of just how knowledgeable the people around me are, and I truly believe that there are very few opportunities where you can learn as much. Having this exposure to how investors think about markets, product, and people has made me even more excited about these spaces that I can continue learning about and contributing to.

Darius Naini

What is one of your favorite projects or learnings from the Fellowship?

My favorite experience has been getting exposure to real deal flow. Looking through decks and evaluating companies that are actively seeking investment gave me a completely different perspective on how venture investors assess opportunities. Seeing what separates a compelling pitch from one that does not get traction has been invaluable.

How has the fellowship shaped (or reinforced) your interest in startups and venture?

The fellowship gave me a much sharper lens for how great companies are built from the ground up. Being around founders and operators reinforced my appreciation for the operator side of the table, which I think makes you a stronger financier in the long run. It deepened my interest in understanding what separates businesses that scale from those that do not.

Shloak Rathod

What is one of your favorite projects or learnings from the Fellowship?

My favorite project involved conducting due diligence on an AI company by synthesizing publicly available information on user sentiment and the company's product and GTM strategy. It was interesting to see how diligence findings are applied to the decision-making process.

How has the fellowship shaped (or reinforced) your interest in startups and venture?

Sitting in on deal conversations and reading materials like pitch decks, memos, and venture math with investors who are actively deciding whether to invest made the investment process feel concrete in a way that reading about it never did. Conversations with James and Mason gave me unfiltered access to how investment decisions are actually made.

Aaron Siddiky

What is one of your favorite projects or learnings from the Fellowship?

Building an autonomous venture scout agent for NEA investors to visualize customer sentiment across portfolio companies. I also very much enjoyed co-authoring the enterprise memory thesis.

How has the fellowship shaped (or reinforced) your interest in startups and venture?

The NEA fellowship provided an invaluable opportunity to diligence an emerging market, speak with founders firsthand, and build with new technology to make a tangible impact. Having a front row-seat to investors making bold convictions about the future has strengthened my own ambition to do the same as a founder and investor.

Kylie Tatarsky

What is one of your favorite projects or learnings from the Fellowship?

Sourcing potential acquisitions/target companies for my mentor and engaging more with the private market and the people working within this section of the market.

How has the fellowship shaped (or reinforced) your interest in startups and venture?

I loved coming into the fellowship with little to no experience in the private markets, but with a passion for people, design, and a hunger to learn. Since becoming a fellow, I've learned how to better identify market trends and enjoyed following student-led startups born and developed at and around Dartmouth. I've also enjoyed engaging in conversations with VCs and others in private and public market roles — knowing what they're referring to and having my own practice-backed opinions on these topics. I've found the fellowship extremely rewarding and appreciated its flexible structure over the last few months.