Point72 Ventures is excited to be offering a new resource to help our portfolio companies recruit top talent through our firm’s partnership with Correlation One’s Data Science for All (DS4A), a career development program that helps people from underrepresented backgrounds get jobs in data science, data analytics and data engineering.

Stellar Health, a healthcare technology company, recently became the first of our portfolio companies to hire from the DS4A program’s diverse pool of vetted data talent when two fellows, Kyle Thomson and Angel Zelazny, joined their Business Intelligence department after a competitive interview process.

“We believe that all teams are made better by having a diverse set of voices, backgrounds, and perspectives,” said Miguel Vargas, a member of Point72’s proprietary research team and business partner for the DS4A program. “Jobs in technology, data analytics, and fintech have chronic representation gaps for women, BIPOC, Hispanic / Latin and LGBTQ+ professionals, and we’re committed to identifying tangible solutions.”

“Point72 is proud to be partnering with DS4A to expand their reach and increase representation not just at our Firm, but with Point72 Venture’s portfolio companies,” said Jeanne Melino, Chief Inclusion and Community Officer at Point72.

Point72 was a founding partner of DS4A in 2019, and has helped grow the initiative to one of the most recognized, world-changing ideas in education and social impact in the data analytics space.

DS4A’s admissions process is extremely competitive. The program receives nearly 50,000 applicants per year and invites nearly 1,000 individuals to join the program as DS4A fellows. To date, the initiative has provided free training and career support to over 4,000 individuals, with nearly 90% of graduates achieving a career advancement after program completion.

Point72 partners with DS4A throughout the year by providing mentorship and financial support, and by connecting program graduates with roles at our firm and our portfolio companies.

“DS4A presented us with a diverse array of talent from non-traditional backgrounds,” said Eddie Mengana, hiring manager at Stellar Health. “Finding and recruiting top technical talent has changed in a fundamental way in a post-pandemic world. Buoyed by a tight labor market, we have had to be strategic about the outside resources that we leverage to build our business. Thanks to our partnership with Correlation One by way of Point72, we were able to zero in on strong candidates that really met our needs in a short period of time.”

Angel has a background in data analysis and graduated from Kansas State University with a degree in mathematics and statistics. Kyle has a background in user research and data quality analysis and graduated from California Polytechnic State University with a degree in physics and a minor in mathematics.

Angel and Kyle said they were both excited for the opportunity to join Stellar Health.

“Everyone I’ve talked to from the company has been absolutely great,” Angel said. “I think it’s going to be a great opportunity for me to develop my career and analytics skills, and I’m glad I found the opening through DS4A. My degree in mathematics and statistics has been a great foundation, but the DS4A program really opened doors to other opportunities through the network it provided me and by giving me more hands-on experience in building foundational skills.”

Kyle said that his experience with DS4A “has been extremely rewarding and has had a major impact on my confidence and ability to succeed as a data analyst. I originally applied to DS4A just a couple months after I had graduated college and my only experience with data science was mainly theoretical and wouldn’t transfer well to a business environment.”

“The professional development opportunities DS4A gave me have made me so much more confident in my ability to succeed as a data science professional,” he added. “I’m so excited to contribute to the success of Stellar Health.”

We hope Stellar Health is the first of many portfolio companies to take advantage of this relationship with Data Science for All! They can help bring diverse and exceptional talent to your organization and save you time along the way.

This is not an advertisement nor an offer to sell nor a solicitation of an offer to invest in any entity or other investment vehicle.  The information herein is not intended to be used as a guide to investing or as a source of any specific investment recommendation, and it makes no implied or express recommendation concerning the suitability of an investment for any particular investor.  The opinions, projections and other forward-looking statements are based on assumptions that the authors’ believe to be reasonable but are subject to a wide range of risks and uncertainties, and, therefore, actual outcomes and future events may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements.  Point72 Private Investments, LLC or an affiliate may seek to invest in one or more of the companies discussed herein.