If you're reading this, you've probably seen someone's "Engineering Fellow" or "Product Fellow" experience on LinkedIn. You searched up the program and found little about what it is, what fellows do/get, and if it's worth applying.
I'm Kyle, and I did the fellowship in summer 2025. Here's some honest thoughts.
What is KP? And what is the fellowship?
Kleiner Perkins is a venture capital firm that typically invests in companies at Series A and beyond. Some of their investments include: Figma, Loom, Rippling, Glean, Databricks, Slack, and Browserbase (best company, unbiased).
The Kleiner Perkins fellowship is a program that helps connect talented students who are coming to SF for summer internships at their portfolio companies. We hang out, have fun events (kayaking, baseball games in box suites, park days, etc.), and start the summer with a friend group of non-coworkers.
My personal experience
To preface this, huge shoutout to Dana, who joined KP this year to lead the fellowship and did an amazing job planning events and ensuring we all had a good summer. I'm super grateful and know from past fellows that this year we were blessed to have tons of events.
That being said, during scheduled events, I was often working (delivering shareholder value is my duty) and couldn't make a good amount of these events. We'd occasionally have stuff planned in Palo Alto/South Bay, which isn't the nicest commute during the weekday from SF. Some of the times for these events were also a conflict. I didn't want to ever be the first person to leave the office, and the 4pm hangouts were a nice thought, but I'm sure some of my peers felt the same.
I did make time for the important ones and partner dinners with Ilya Fushman and Mamoon Hamid.
A highlight event was going to a Giants' game, where we stayed in a box suite. I've been in a box before, but it was great having free food with friends and watching the Giants win.
Would I recommend it?
Absolutely, the Uber credits alone made this worth my time. Making good friends in a new city is hard, especially when you only get 3 months to do it. The people I see most are my coworkers, who I've made friends with, and obviously my roommates. I'm very grateful to have met a lot of the fellows and hope to stay in contact in the future.
You also get the network of other past KP fellows, which honestly isn't super helpful other than knowing the ones that actually start cool companies like the Pylon Founders or Dylan Field who just took Figma public.
If you want a referral, feel free to email me. I'm happy to refer anyone who I believe will do great things in the future.