Associates

Become a Kickstart Associate!

Kickstart offers hands-on experience managing, investing, and tracking seed stage investments. Associates conduct commercial and financial due diligence, evaluate pitches, source companies, and track our investment performance. As one of few student-run funds in the country that fully distributes capital to startups, new members receive training in key topics in finance, entrepreneurship, and investing.

The expected time commitment of an associate is 2-4 hours per week. Meetings occur at 5:15PM EST on Tuesdays of every week, and generally last until 6:45PM.

All undergraduate students are eligible. In addition, you must be actively enrolled in, or intending to apply to, the ENTR Certificate. As Kickstart is a full-year commitment, you must be present on-campus. (not studying abroad) for the entire academic year of 2024-2025.

Kickstart is one of the UGA's foremost student organizations. Our members regularly place into internships and full-time roles in highly competitive fields. Since our inception in 2018, alumni of Kickstart have gone to internships and full-time roles at Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, Citi, Bain & Company, Boston Consulting Group, JP Morgan, Deloitte, BlackRock, NBCUniversal, Dropbox, and Esri.

Click the button below to be taken to the Kickstart 2024-2025 Associate Application.

Apply Now
book

General Requirements for Prospective Associates

  • Proven academic performance
  • Strong extracurricular involvement on campus
  • Demonstrated business skillset and startup interest
  • Solid communication and analytical abilities
  • Demonstrated interest in entrepreneurship, startups, and/or venture capital
  • *Intending to add or already added the Entrepreneurship Certificate*

Committee Information

Please note, regardless of the committee you choose, all members of Kickstart hear and deliberate on pitches collectively. Committees are groups formed to carry out non-pitch related Kickstart functions. Please thoughtfully consider how your proven experience and interests align with the committee of your choosing, since we will review your application in the context of your chosen committee.

Deal Sourcing 
You're our outreach specialists and the core of Kickstart. Deal sourcing focuses on building relationships with students, professors, and departments to ensure a steady stream of startups apply for funding, in addition to managing our applicant pipeline.

What could make you stand out?
  • Diverse club involvement
  • Extroverted, outgoing, a people person
  • Unique major (or heavy minor involvement) outside of Terry
  • Willing to attend on-campus events to represent Kickstart and engage with startups
Portfolio Management
Portfolio management ensures our fund operates smoothly by keeping up to date (and evaluating) formerly funded companies, in addition to writing formal investment recommendations.


What could make you stand out?
  • Proven history of diligent and high-quality work, whether academic, within on-campus organizations, or professionally
  • Strong attention to detail
Communications
You ensure that Kickstart is well-known on campus. Communications creates content for social media and oversees broad outreach initiatives. Compared to deal sourcing, communications is focused on creating and maintaining Kickstart's brand.

What could make you stand out?
  • Experience working with graphic design tools like Canva
  • Prior web design or development experience
  • History of managing social media or a brand
  • Written content creation experience
Recruiting & Operations
Active in recruiting for a few months every single year, recruiting and operations is primarily responsible for Kickstart's day-to-day operations, including pitch scheduling.


What could make you stand out?
  • Prior experience with operations or management
  • Experience in a recruitment role in an organization
  • Leadership experience in any organization