Student Experience
Life Beyond the Redwoods: Smeet Mehta at 100x.VC Mumbai
One year after graduating from UC Santa Cruz, Smeet Mehta (Crown ’24, philosophy) works as an analyst at 100x.VC—an early-stage venture capital firm based in Mumbai—to help startups get the funding they need to start their journeys.
Smeet Mehta (Crown ’24, philosophy)
Smeet Mehta (Crown ’24, philosophy) found his love for entrepreneurship while at UC Santa Cruz. He took advantage of every opportunity that came his way, from representing UC Santa Cruz at the Venture Capital Investment Competition to helping to start Slug Tank—UCSC’s student club version of Shark Tank. Now, one year after graduation, Mehta is in Mumbai, working as an analyst at 100x.VC—an early-stage venture capital firm—to help startups get the funding they need to start their journeys.
“UC Santa Cruz taught me to be greedy for opportunity,” Mehta said. “The more greedy I was for opportunity, the more I was in the right place at the right time. A lot of great accidents happened where I ended up in positions I didn’t even expect to be in, and it turned out to be really fruitful.”
Mehta’s journey into entrepreneurship at UC Santa Cruz started with the Social Entrepreneurship Class and the Student Creativity and Entrepreneurship Empowerment Club (SCEE) club. Through SCEE, Mehta helped organise speaker events, including one featuring Marc Randolph, co-founder of Netflix.
An alumnus of the pathway in entrepreneurship program from Crown College, Mehta gained hands-on experience working with startups across Santa Cruz County, planning and hosting events from start to finish. In 2020, he teamed up with professors and fellow students to launch Get Virtual, a program that supported local organizations in upgrading their websites during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We wanted to use no-code tools and quickly help these businesses start generating revenue,” Mehta said in a LinkedIn post. Initially focused on helping local businesses in Santa Cruz, the program soon scaled to a UC-wide initiative, partnering with state universities nationwide.”
Get Virtual worked with over 250 organizations, providing them with digital tools to survive during the pandemic. As the program grew, Mehta became instrumental in developing and managing a scalable CRM system to handle the influx of clients and volunteers.
“That experience taught me, how do you take something from zero to one hundred? And that is where all the companies that we work with [at 100x.VC] are at.”
In addition to his involvement with organizations focused on entrepreneurial endeavors, Mehta was an organizing director of the Indian Student Association (IAS) at UC Santa Cruz.
Looking toward the future, Mehta hopes to continue his love for entrepreneurship and have an impact at a large scale. He is grateful to UC Santa Cruz for nurturing his passions, and giving him the opportunities to pursue transformational educational experiences.
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