Author: maseigel

This summer, I met most of my learning goals with Health Innovation Capital. I had initially hoped to garner whether or not law school was the right path for me in reaching my ultimate goals. Thankfully, this experience has confirmed for me that it is the right choice. I have greatly enjoyed meeting with our counsel, discussing legal issues, working on contracts, and more. I hope to continue to pursue my passions by attending law school in the future. This internship has given me some invaluable experience which could help me in meeting this goal. I had also hoped to become more proficient in understanding legalese and language when reading contracts. I now have a better grip on the way that professional contracts are written and structured, along with an understanding of how to go about writing them and referencing necessary information like statutes and laws. I have absolutely achieved this goal as well, with a much more comprehensive understanding of how contracts work and understanding their purpose. Overall, my goals did not really have to change. While there may have been some challenges in other aspects of the remote work environment, the content of my work and their interaction with my goals was met.

As previously mentioned, this internship has confirmed my anticipated career path. It is my overarching goal to become an agent and represent athletes in both club and endorsement settings. While contract work is obviously key, and the work I did this summer was invaluable with them, I also learned how to approach meetings with potential clients, administrators, etc. This skill set was something I honestly had not used much in the past. However, I was able to build and refine these skills over the summer, which also could be invaluable if I am fortunate enough to achieve my goals. Aside from this, I realized that I am very good at independent work. Once given a task, I take it and run. I am not afraid to ask for help, however, and when I get stuck, I have no problem approaching a superior.

Some advice I would give to a student look at a potential internship with HIC would be to prepare to work hard and be given more responsibility than one might expect for an undergraduate intern in the venture capital space. HIC is small, and therefore you will be utilized to your fullest potential. I unlocked skills I didn’t even realize I had, but the challenge of HIC made them come to life. I also recommend catching up on the Healthcare industry and exploring ESG as they are an impact fund. For those interested in venture capital in general, I’d say to be prepared for a super fast-paced environment. Companies move quickly and there is big money involved in the space. Be prepared to work late hours and be challenged, but it will be worth it.

Overall, this summer, I am most proud of my adaptability. I mentioned in a previous blog post how remote work was a challenge. However, I made it my own and was able to adapt to the new workforce. While I struggled at first, my ability to make the best of it made me proud, as I have also had challenges in being adaptable when it came to working with others. I overcame it however and had a great summer.

This summer, I am working virtually as a legal and administrative intern with Health Innovation Capital (HIC), a Chicago-based venture capital impact investor targeting the unmet innovation needs of pediatric patients within oncology, infectious diseases, and select rare/orphan designations. We are among the only independent U.S. Impact venture capital firms that maintains such an integrated investment thesis, impact strategy, and return model. Our mission is stated as follows, “HIC is committed to ensuring that the health innovation and impact investing that the firm pursues improves the quality of life and outcomes for the most vulnerable and at-risk patient populations. We evolved from the belief that there is no silver bullet to creating a sustainable, medicinally relevant, commercially viable and investor worthy medical innovation company that is patient and outcomes driven to the core.”

While HIC follows the format of a typical venture capital fund, (fundraising through limited partners and investing in growing businesses) we have a focus on impact. To ensure that all patients have access to care regardless of income, location, or another factor, HIC has established a not-for-profit organization that partners with centers of excellence around the world and donates an estimated 10% of the general partner carry allocation or 2% of the firm’s overall performance back to these centers of excellence.

As this is only the firm’s first fund, it could be considered a startup. Therefore, I have been involved in helping set up and choose many of the business administration tools our whole fund will be using such as our Customer Relationship Management tool (CRM), our fund administrator, and our data room provider. Through meetings with different representatives taking notes, comparing and contrasting functionality, and discussing with the general partners we have made decisions and hope to get all three fully set up by the end of next week. I also have helped create and organize our company’s digital filing system and created Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for sharing and saving data, which has streamlined communication and organization for us. On the legal side, I have had the opportunity to help read and even write up employment agreements for some of the fund’s new hires. Not only this, but I have created and sent out many non-disclosure agreements to be executed by those with who we begin to do business. This has not only taught me how to better read and understand contracts and legalese but has helped the partners and general counsel by speeding up business processes.

My learning goals for the rest of the summer are to continue working in lockstep with the general partners to continue gaining experience in the field of venture capital and transaction law. I will continue to work with legal counsel and the general partners to help revise and finalize different legal documentation such as term sheets and private placement memorandums with the final goal of being able to create and execute them independently. I will also undergo training on how to evaluate new investments and learn, from the ground-up with senior partner mentorship, how a sector-specific venture investor identifies, evaluates, and executes investments in a diverse set of companies. On occasion, I may also support a General Partner and HIC portfolio company’s executives (CEOs, COOs, etc.) to employ a revised investment and operating model to drive investor returns.