Apply now
The best read on a founder rarely comes from a deck. It comes from the person who already knows them: the roommate who watched the first version get built, the classmate who heard the idea before it had a name. Dorm Room Fund was built on that insight: the earliest, sharpest conviction on a company usually belongs to a student, so we put real capital directly in their hands.
As a partner, you get full authority over that capital. You source, you diligence, you decide; with direct mentorship from investors at the firms shaping the industry, and a community that keeps opening doors long after you graduate.
We're looking for students who can't walk past an interesting problem without asking how it got built, who follow through once they've said yes, and who want the next few years learning by doing the work instead of reading about it. You don't need finance experience, you need to already be the person your friends call when they have an idea worth chasing.
Applications are open on a rolling basis. Deadlines and regional details are in the FAQ below.
Apply nowWhat partners do
Source
Identify founders before anyone else, in your classes, your dorm, or your group chats. Bring the best of them to your team.
Debate
Work every deal with your regional team: pressure-test the pitch, question the underlying assumptions, and decide if it's worth our capital.
Invest
Make the case, then write the check. The call is yours as a team.
Build
Host the debates, dinners, and demo-nights that make your region worth being part of.
What you'll receive
100% investment authority.
Partners hold full decision-making power on every deal, the kind of authority most investors wait a decade to earn. You leave with an actual track record, not a title.
Twice-weekly training from the industry's best.
Investors and operators from firms like a16z, Sequoia, and First Round work directly with partners on live deals, not hypotheticals.
All DRF.
Once a year, the full community, current partners, alumni, founders, and friends, spends a weekend together in Palm Springs. More than 140 people show up. All costs covered.
Full creative freedom over your region's community, with real resources behind it.
Partners have run dinners, hackathons, poker nights, whatever fits their team and their people.
A direct line to your next role.
Partners get first access to openings at the VC firms and startups inside the DRF network, long after their tenure ends.
DRF for life.
The community doesn't close when the program ends. Partners graduate into a network of hundreds who keep showing up, as mentors, as co-founders, as the first call when something goes right or wrong. “DRF for life” isn't a tagline here, it's how the firm actually operates.
500+
alumni
I joined DRF because of the exposure to VC, but I've stayed for the community. I've been so lucky to be surrounded by peers who uniquely challenge me to think deeply and critically. DRFers relentlessly reimagine the world the way it could and should be, a trait I hope to take with me long after my time as a student partner ends.
Eyrin Kim
Student investment partner
I'm primarily a researcher and builder, and I originally applied to DRF because a few people I really respected in the alumni community spoke incredibly highly of the program and encouraged me to give investing a shot. I've how to evaluate companies, work through deals, and seriously explore problem spaces far outside my own technical background has made me a much better builder — it's sharpened my intuition for what is actually differentiated, what makes a market interesting, and how strong technical ideas become real companies. I've also loved how much perspective the community provides; between the team, the alumni network, and the friends I've made through DRF, there's almost always someone who has thought deeply about whatever space I'm trying to understand. A big part of the value for me has just been maximizing serendipity — meeting people I probably never would have crossed paths with through my normal research and work, getting pulled into completely new areas, and having those conversations turn into friendships, ideas, and opportunities in ways that are hard to predict ahead of time.
Hari Srikanth
Student investment partner
80%
of alumni become founders or VCs
Hands down I would encourage any aspiring VC to join DRF, no brainer!
Talia Goldberg
Partner, Bessemer Venture Partners · University of Pennsylvania
Looking to build lifelong relationships and friends with the most entrepreneurial students out there? Dorm Room Fund is that community.
Alex Immerman
Partner, a16z · Harvard Business School
50%
of partners are female or nonbinary (vs. 11% industry average)
Dorm Room Fund was the best thing I did in school. I still rely on this community as friends, advisors, and investors.
Toni Oloko
Co-Founder, Dandy · University of Pennsylvania
How to apply
✦East Coast & Midwest
September 16, 2026
✦SF & West Coast
October 1, 2026
The process
1
Apply
Submit a written application. We read every response closely, so be specific and be yourself. This should sound like you wrote it, not a template, so skip the AI-polished answers. We can tell, and it's your own thinking we're actually here to meet.
2
Interviews
If you move forward, you'll have two 30-minute interviews, each with a different member of the team.
3
Super Day
If you move forward again, you'll meet the full regional team you applied to. Super Day runs 2-3 hours over a pre-scheduled Saturday or Sunday and includes five interviews back-to-back.
4
Decision
We follow up with results the week after Super Day.
From application deadline to Super Day is about three weeks.
We move candidates through each round in batches, not one by one, so it can take time to hear back after a given step. You'll get an update as your batch clears each stage, but we're not able to provide individual status checks in between.
Qualifications
✦You're enrolled full-time in a college, MBA, PhD, JD, or master's program at a U.S. or Canadian university, or you're on an approved gap year and planning to return.
✦You're a current student. Recent graduates aren't eligible to apply.
✦You can commit roughly 10-15 hours a week for as long as you're with us.
✦Not sure which regional team you belong to? It's in the FAQ below.
Ready? Applications are open.
FAQs
Teams are based on where your school is:
- NY & Midwest New York, Montana, North & South Dakota, Nebraska, Connecticut, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois
- Boston & Northeast Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island
- Philadelphia & Southeast Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Missouri, Kentucky, Kansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, North & South Carolina, West Virginia, Virginia, Georgia, Maryland, Tennessee, Arkansas, Delaware
- SF & West Coast Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Alaska, Hawaii, Texas
East Coast & Midwest teams (NY & Midwest, Boston & Northeast, Philadelphia & Southeast) are due September 16, 2026 at 11:59pm ET. The SF & West Coast team is due October 1, 2026 at 11:59pm PT. We review on a rolling basis, so apply as soon as you're ready.
No. We don't require one and we don't expect you to have one.
Yes! Plenty of current partners applied more than once before joining.
If you're invited to interview, show up on time, in a quiet, well-lit space, with your video and audio tested ahead of time.
If you're based near San Francisco, New York, Philadelphia, or Boston, you'll meet with your team in person each week. Everyone else serves as a fully remote partner, and our team meetings are designed in a hybrid format to accommodate both. Throughout the year, we cover travel so everyone can join in-person events too.
No. Our partners have included Philosophy majors and CS researchers, gallerists and olympic athletes, crypto-obsessives and former CIA analysts. What matters is how you think about founders and markets, not your major.
Yes. We look for real interest in startups or investing, not years of experience, and some of our strongest teammates have begun their tenure as freshmen.
Apply anyway. We're always expanding to new schools, and partners who bring their own campus into the fold for the first time tend to make some of our strongest teammates.
Yes, as long as you're enrolled at a U.S. or Canadian university. Unfortunately, we're not global (yet).
Until you graduate. Freshmen can be with us for up to four years, MBAs typically two, and PhDs, well, we've had a few who never really left.
We don't do open relationships. Once you accept a spot, DRF is the only VC firm or program you're part of while you're with us. (Summer internships are the exception; we regularly connect partners with roles at firms in our network, and plenty of people take us up on it.)
Still have questions? Reach out at recruiting@dormroomfund.com.