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Kauffman Fellows
Kauffman Fellows trains VC leaders from a Kauffman Foundation endowment base, with 800+ fellows managing over $500B in aggregate.
Kauffman Fellows
Ewing Marion Kauffman embedded his wealth-creation philosophy into a formal fellowship in 1995, three years after his death, through the Kauffman Foundation's endowment. The program began as a way to professionalize venture investors, distilling the mentorship Kauffman himself practiced at Marion Laboratories into a two-year curriculum. Early cohorts were deliberately small, training partners inside firms where the foundation itself invested. The fellowship's actual capital deployment flows through the Kauffman Foundation's endowment rather than a separate family vehicle. The foundation commits to venture funds, makes direct investments in emerging managers, and anchors first-time vehicles. Portfolio exposure spans information technology, life sciences, and financial services. Past fellows manage funds at Sequoia, Union Square Ventures, and Foundry Group. The program maintains a formal co-investment structure through its annual Summit, where Kauffman Fellows portfolio companies present to the network. Over 800 fellows now operate across 50 countries from additional offices in Princeton, San Francisco, and Beijing. The network is not a capital vehicle but a talent infrastructure — fellows run an estimated $500 billion in aggregate assets under management across their firms, though the fellowship does not calculate that figure directly. In May 2024, the program shifted to a new leadership structure as Jeff Harbach assumed the CEO role, integrating the fellowship more tightly with the foundation's broader entrepreneurship programs. What distinguishes Kauffman Fellows from other investor networks is its structural tie to a single philanthropic endowment that distributes no profits and carries no fee burden. The foundation uses the fellowship as a sourcing mechanism for manager selection, creating a closed feedback loop between talent identification and capital allocation that a commercially motivated fund-of-funds cannot replicate.
General information
Firm type
Family Office
Year founded
1995
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Palo Alto
Corporate office
Palo Alto, CA, United States
Additional offices
Princeton, NJ · San Francisco, CA · Menlo Park, CA · Miami, FL · Park Ridge, NJ · New York, NY · Beijing, China · Austin, TX · Madrid, Spain
Principals
Jeff Harbach
Chief Executive Officer
Ewing Marion Kauffman
Founder (Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation)
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Kauffman Fellows?
Kauffman Fellows itself does not make investment decisions as a pooled fund. Capital deployment sits with the separate Kauffman Foundation endowment team, which invests in venture funds and directly in emerging managers. The fellowship program identifies and trains the people who will run those funds, but the two functions are organizationally distinct.
How does Kauffman Fellows structure its relationship with the Kauffman Foundation?
Kauffman Fellows operates as a program within the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the $2.8 billion philanthropic endowment established from the sale of Marion Laboratories. The foundation funds the fellowship's operations and uses the network as a pipeline for its own venture-capital fund commitments. The fellowship does not charge its own management fees or carry.
Is Kauffman Fellows a single family office or a professional network?
It is a professional network embedded within a family-founded philanthropic foundation. Ewing Kauffman's wealth was not structured as a traditional family office but entered the Kauffman Foundation endowment. The fellows program functions as an industry association that selects, trains, and connects venture investors, not as a direct investment entity.
What investment stages does the Kauffman Fellows network typically target?
The fellows themselves operate across all venture stages — seed through growth equity — at their respective firms. The foundation's endowment primarily commits to early-stage venture funds and emerging managers raising first- or second-time vehicles. Direct investments from the endowment tend to be co-investments alongside proven fellows.
How large is the Kauffman Fellows network in terms of aggregate assets under management?
Kauffman Fellows does not calculate or publish an official aggregate AUM figure. External estimates place the sum of assets managed by the 800-plus fellows' respective firms at over $500 billion, based on publicly reported fund sizes and firm asset totals (per public record). This figure is not an operating metric of the fellowship.
Does Kauffman Fellows charge fees to its members?
Fellows are selected through an annual competitive application process and do not pay membership dues. The program is fully funded by the Kauffman Foundation's endowment, reflecting the founder's intent to open access to venture capital education without financial barrier.
Which sectors do Kauffman Fellows portfolio companies typically operate in?
Fellows invest across a broad technology spectrum, with heavy concentrations in enterprise software, fintech, digital health, and AI-driven platforms. The fellowship does not impose sector restrictions, but the foundation's own venture commitments have historically favored life sciences and deep technology — a reflection of Ewing Kauffman's pharmaceutical background.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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