Venture Fellowship · Founder Fellowship
ExitStack Fellowship
Building the next generation of Bangladeshi investors, operators and founders.
Venture Fellowship · Founder Fellowship
Building the next generation of Bangladeshi investors, operators and founders.
A way in for young people and aspiring founders, and a window into home for Bangladeshis abroad.
Two goals
So talent doesn't default to multinational jobs.
So they see what talent exists at home and follow the ecosystem closely.
Delivered through two tracks
For young people early in their careers.
Cohort 1 completeFor anyone building, or about to build, a startup.
Launching soonThe Fellowship is part of ExitStack, the go-to platform for Bangladeshi startups: news and data, an invite-only community of founders, investors and mentors, and talent programmes.
Talent exists, at home and abroad. The pathways and connections do not.
Few know how VC works, so funds and startups struggle to find people who understand venture. Top talent defaults to banking, consulting or moving abroad.
Active VC firms in Bangladesh*
*Non-exhaustive
Bangladeshis already sit inside top global funds, but few are connected to the ecosystem at home. Their networks and experience go untapped.
Bangladeshis at global VC firms
Visibility drives investment. Markets with diaspora investors get seen, diligenced and funded. Bangladesh is overlooked.
VC funding per person, 2024
Total VC: India $13.7B · Indonesia $440M · Bangladesh $41M. Share of GDP: 0.35% · 0.03% · 0.01%.
Pakistan and Egypt show what one well-placed investor with roots can do.
Born in Pakistan. Early investor in Slack, Figma and Rippling.
Built Pakistan's first female-founded VC fund.
Egyptian-founded, now over $10bn under management.
Individuals learn venture from those who practise it.
Investors abroad get to know the talent and startups at home.
Bangladesh gets seen, diligenced and funded.
Bangladeshis are already in these rooms. The Venture Fellowship is where that connection starts.
Programme 1Cohort 1 complete
Building a pipeline of young talent for startups and VC.
Investors, founders and operators at home and abroad, connected through the fellowship.
Who it connects
Bangladesh-origin VCs, founders and operators.
Undergraduates from different universities.
How it works
They volunteer to teach and advise the cohort.
The strongest undergraduates learn from them directly, on real deal work.
Local talent gains a way into global networks, and the diaspora a way back home.
Applications to Cohort 1 Launched Q3 2025
An overwhelming response to the first cohort. We kept it to 15 on purpose: a deliberate pilot, kept small to learn what works and what doesn't.
Applicants completed real analyst tasks over ten days before anyone was interviewed.
Who made up Venture Fellowship Cohort 1.
Gender, all 15 fellows
Discipline, all 15 fellows
Universities, all 15 fellows
Graduating class, 13 placed fellows
Mixed by design. Business and engineering students from seven universities and four graduating classes.
Investors, founders and operators from across the ecosystem.
Aaisha BhuiyanVenture Partner, Hustle Fund
Ahmed YusufTechnical Specialist, SAJIDA Foundation
Awad SayeedCTO and Co-Founder, Parsnipp
Farhan A. RahmanFounder, Lontana
Fred LiuManaging Partner, Hayden Capital
Ishti AlamInvestment Associate, Anchorless
Mohamed ElmalikPrincipal, Human Capital
Mohi ZamanPrincipal, Anchorless
Mohidul AlamSenior Analyst, Conjunction Capital
Sajid RahmanManaging Partner, MyAsiaVC
Sakib JamalCo-Founder, Stealth Investment Firm
Shahir ChowdhuryFounder and CEO, Shikho
Shoumik ShahriarConsultant and PM, LightCastle
Syed Wajahat KarimAssociate, Conjunction Capital
Tahseen RashidInvestor, HOF CapitalTitles as listed at the time of the cohort.
Each built around a task fellows would do as an analyst.
How a venture fund makes money, and why a few big winners decide whether it succeeds.
Mohi ZamanInvestorHow to find promising startups early and decide in five minutes if a deal is worth more time.
Mohidul AlamInvestorMohamed ElmalikInvestorHow to size a market, judge a business model and turn a view into a clear written case.
Ishti AlamInvestorSyed Wajahat KarimInvestorWhat to check first in an early-stage company, and how to test its market, product and team.
Ishti AlamInvestorShoumik ShahriarOperatorHow to tell when a startup is investment-ready, and what a fair price looks like.
Mohi ZamanInvestorHow to put the toolkit to work: write a sharper memo, structure a deck, present data clearly.
Mohidul AlamInvestorIshti AlamInvestorHow to defend an investment view before an industry panel, and where a venture career leads.
Ishti AlamInvestorMohi ZamanInvestorMohidul AlamInvestorFounders, operators and angels on how companies get built.
How to tell a startup's story so investors remember it, and what makes a pitch land with a VC.
Shahir ChowdhuryFounderHow a startup wins its first customers, then builds a repeatable way to win more of them.
Awad SayeedFounderHow angels size early cheques and risk, and how they add value beyond the money.
Ahmed YusufOperatorFellows put their own questions to investors, founders and operators, and heard how they actually work.
Aaisha BhuiyanOperatorFarhan A. RahmanFounderFred LiuInvestorSajid RahmanInvestorSakib JamalInvestorTahseen RashidInvestorLearning meets practice. The AMA lets fellows take what they learned and dig deeper with the people who do this for a living. They test ideas, ask follow-ups and come away with contacts they can keep learning from.
The two who chose not to were able to make an informed decision that startup life was not for them.
What comes next
Placements are in progress as fellows finish their startup internships.
Not every fellow becomes an investor. Many take venture knowledge into operating roles.
We placed fellows in venture-backed startups to see how everything works inside one, and understand the fundamentals first-hand.
| Fellow | University | Company | Role | HQ | Total raised |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Sumit Anthony Gomes | BRAC CS 2025 |  | Software Engineering Fellow | New York | Not disclosed |
 Iftekhar Ucchash Ahmed | BUP BBA 2026 | | Product Engineering Fellow | New York | Not disclosed |
 Jahin Afsan | IBA DU 2026 |  | Financial Analyst Intern | Dubai | $150M, Unicorn |
 Labiba Hosain Khondkar | NSU BBA 2026 |  | Investor Relations Fellow | Dhaka | $7.5M |
 Abidur Rahman | UIU BBA 2026 |  | Business Operations Intern | Dhaka | $8M |
 Munira Rawshan | BRAC CS 2026 |  | Corporate Development Intern | Dhaka | $3M |
 Mustavi Khan | NSU CS 2026 |  | AI Intern | New York | Not disclosed |
 Subhana Bintay Azam | NSU BBA 2026 |  | Junior Product Marketer | Sylhet | Not disclosed |
 Fabiana Binte Mesbah | IBA DU 2027 |  | Business Affairs Fellow | Dhaka | $8M |
 Sadia Islam | IBA DU 2027 |  | Impact Project Intern | Dhaka | $2M |
 Abrar Fiaz | BRAC CS 2028 |  | Growth Engineering Intern | San Francisco | Not disclosed |
 Ittesaf Ithun | IUT CS 2028 |  | Product Intern | Dhaka | $50M |
 Taosif Al Afnan | BUET CIVIL 2028 |  | Operations and Product Intern | Dhaka | $1.8M |
Sorted by year of graduation, earliest first. Status as of October 2026. Company HQ and funding from public sources, 2026. Eddie AI, Measured, Zelf and Dorik do not disclose total funding. Measured is Y Combinator W21; Dorik is backed by Long Journey Ventures. Some fellows are still studying while working.
What Cohort 1 changed for startups, for fellows and for the ecosystem.
Founders meet analysts who have already screened deals, written memos and sat with investors. Hiring starts before the market does.
What Cohort 1 showed
Real roles, from engineering and product to investor relations.
More partners have asked to host fellows in Cohort 2.
The first structured entry into venture for Bangladeshi undergraduates, taught by people who invest for a living.
What Cohort 1 showed
Five fellows work with companies based in the US or Dubai.
A first network of peers, mentors and employers that stays with them.
Every fellow placed is one more person who can argue the country's case when capital is being allocated.
What Cohort 1 showed
Investors abroad taught the cohort and now know this talent first-hand.
Venture is now visible as a career to students who had no route in.
The chain has started. Talent found a way in, the diaspora met it, and startups hired it.
Hundreds of messages followed the first cohort. These are the questions people asked most.
Demand is already there. Cohort 2 has an audience before it opens.
What people asked
Cohort 2 dates will be announced here and on ExitStack's channels.
Applications open with each cohort. Selection runs on real analyst work, then a panel interview.
Yes. Six of fifteen Cohort 1 fellows came from engineering, and several now work in engineering and product roles.
Fund economics, sourcing, memos, diligence and valuation, taught by working investors.
Programme 2Launching soon
Helping aspiring and experienced talent learn the venture path and build.
What the Venture Fellowship built becomes the starting point for Programme 2.
Investors, founders and operators who already teach.
Venture-backed companies that host and hire.
Analysts who can support founder teams from day one.
An audience already asking for the next cohort.
The same mentors, companies and fellows, now backing the people who start companies.
No cold start. Programme 2 runs on the network Programme 1 built.
Three kinds of builder in one room.
First-time founders already building in the local ecosystem.
Bangladeshis overseas who want to build for, or from, the country and connect with local talent.
Operators and graduates with an idea and the will to commit.
How founders are selected
Idea, background and motivation.
An MVP showcase session.
With investors and operators.
Same principle as the Venture Fellowship: selected on work, not interviews alone.
Hybrid by design, so diaspora founders can take part from anywhere.
Customer interviews, problem validation and market sizing.
A working product, first users and early traction.
Financial modelling, pitch and investor readiness.
Every week
Live workshops, in Dhaka and online.
Office hours with investors and operators.
Venture Fellows research markets with founders.
Final pitches to local and diaspora investors.
Ready to raise. Founders leave with a pitch, a model and a network.
Talent on one side, companies on the other, one network between them.
Venture Fellows run real diligence on founder companies, so founders get analyst support from day one.
Every cohort adds startups that need trained talent, and fellows are ready to step into those teams.
Mentors, alumni and investors serve both programmes, so each cohort makes the next one stronger.
Talent and companies, built together.
Want to mentor a cohort, host a fellow at your startup, or hear when Cohort 2 and the Founder Fellowship open? Write to us.
fellowship@exitstack.co