Shreya Shekhar, BS 23, Partner, Greylock

Until she joined Greylock Partners—one of the oldest venture capital firms with a portfolio that includes Facebook, LinkedIn, and Airbnb—Shreya Shekhar never saw herself as a venture capitalist.

Initially, the 20-something Shekhar wanted to be an entrepreneur. But after working at the startup Bedrock Data for several years, she found herself heavily involved in the investment world. “I was either going to some tech event to meet cool people, learning from founders, or writing about the spaces I was interested in,” she says. “This was my extracurricular, but I was looking forward to it every day.” 

In many ways, Shekhar has been moving in that direction since high school, where she became fascinated with coding, tech, AI, and startups. She won acceptance to the highly competitive Management, Entrepreneurship, & Technology (M.E.T.) program, an undergraduate dual-degree in engineering and business. 

While there, Shekhar did five internships—even as she co-founded a food-delivery startup amid the pandemic and won startup competitions. She also earned slots in two prestigious VC-backed programs: Accel Scholars, which provides Silicon Valley access, mentorship, and an industry-relevant curriculum, and Kleiner Perkins Fellows, which lets top students work inside innovative startups. Now a partner at Greylock—a decision-making role that few women in Silicon Valley hold—she’s investing in early-stage startups in AI infrastructure, including databases, development tools, and cybersecurity. 

“People say to me, ‘Oh, you’ve accomplished so much already. What do you have left to do?’” she says. “But to me, it’s the complete opposite—now I have to prove myself.”