We’re thrilled to be kicking off the inaugural Bowery Capital Sales Fellowship Program this summer. The concept for the Program came about as I started to think about the lack of opportunities for recent grads to get into software sales. The software industry is a dynamic field with unparalleled career opportunities for recent graduates, yet when I spoke to companies about where they focused their internship opportunities, everything seemed to be very centered around technical roles.
This was curious to me in two ways. One, when you look at the overall makeup of a software company, a significant portion of the overall organization is the sales team because, at the end of the day, revenue rules all. The second was because of the ever-present internal struggle I know companies feel when they begin hiring entry-level talent. Most startups want to hire strong recent graduates who are eager and have the hustle to come in, work hard and climb the ladder, yet they don’t have the resources to train and onboard someone with absolutely no experience in sales. Our goal in creating the Program is to narrow the knowledge gap between education and industry by providing a functional fellowship experience which pairs high-achieving students with some of the most exciting growth companies in New York.
The program pairs Fellows with leading venture-backed software companies in New York City, providing participants with exposure to the software industry and the skills needed to be a successful sales executive. Each Fellow is paired with one New York-based software company for the duration of the fellowship. During this time, Fellows will be given unique access to firm management, resources, and networking opportunities.
In addition, the Fellowship includes weekly roundtable training seminars led by leading industry practitioners. “Sales is such a critical piece of any organization, yet we don’t see many students come out of college with an understanding of how sales organizations operate or the knowledge of what it takes to be a successful rep. The Sales Fellowship Program is building a bridge in that way, while also allowing companies a chance to work with and potentially hire high-potential recent graduates that they may not have otherwise come across,” explained Michael Wendell, Senior Vice President of Medidata Solutions’ Global Go-To-Market Team.
Participating companies include CB Insights, CloserIQ, DigitalOcean, DojoMojo, Electric.ai, Medidata Solutions, MOAT, Oscar, and SwiftShift. Fellows come from Boston College, Columbia University, James Madison University, The University of Maryland, The University of Michigan and Villanova. The program will run from June 5 through August 4, 2017.
