We are catching up with our Fellow alumni to hear what they have been up to since finishing the program.
Rae joined the Fellowship having worked at top consulting, advertising and PR agencies as well as in major and high-growth listed corporates in communications and public affairs. After the Fellowship, she had a stint in business development for AI startup Soul Machines, then joined legaltech startup Josef to run their communications and marketing function. While she’s a self described ‘jack of all trades with a short attention span’, Rae has deep experience and a unique blend of communications, stakeholder engagement, corporate finance and strategy experience.
What was the Fellowship to you?
I was at a turning point in my career. I’d begun the transition from corporate to startup, but with no clear understanding of where my skills or experience fit or what type of world I wanted to create.
The Fellowship gave me an immersive introduction to startups at 2.5x speed, as well as a mirror to my own ambitions.
Would you recommend it to others?
Definitely. If you’re the kind of person who relishes a challenge, won’t stop learning, and doesn’t mind being so far out of your comfort zone you can’t even remember where that thing is, this is the program for you.
What were the biggest outcomes for you from participating in the Fellowship
An obvious outcome was finding my sweet spot in a high growth startup (just like advertised in the brochure) joining Josef as Head of Comms - something I couldn’t have imagined before doing the Fellowship.
It almost feels unfair to pick one outcome. I discovered how to articulate my non-resume strengths, learned how to pitch myself without feeling like a fraud, picked up some hard skills, and became aware of what was holding me back. On reflection, these are significant markers that could have taken me months or years to achieve, but instead took me days and weeks.
But if I have to pick one, it’s having a network of brilliant, ambitious and inspiring individuals who supported me through the ups and downs, and pushed me to aim just a little bit higher.
