Sachem Alumni Spotlight: Brett Fink, Sachem East ’09

Sachem East grad working in venture capital credits Sachem teachers, coaches with impacting his journey.

Brett Fink graduated from Sachem East in 2009 and has quickly built a career in tech and venture capitalism.

Fink, who majored in cognitive science at Northeastern, recently became the director of partnerships and senior associate for Moderne Ventures, a $33M fund based in Chicago.

Prior to that he was at the largest seed investor globally, 500 Startups, and started his career working at Snapchat. In between all of the successes Fink has worked for 15-plus companies and made multiple career pivots.

We asked him some questions about what Sachem meant for his personal development.

How did Sachem help shape your life and career?

“Sachem was a wake-up call, a lot of the people who I respected talked about getting out and exploring what interested me, college seemed like the logical next step. I’d say it was the advisors and coaches who impacted me the most, the people who spent the time to really mentor me.”

Who had the biggest impact on you at Sachem?

“It was a mix of my coaches throughout my time at East. A few notables being Dave Caputo, Lou Antonetti, Jimmy Dee, Bill Kropp. These were the leaders of East. I learned many life lessons that I still use daily from my coaches and mentors.”

Tell us what you do for a living and how did you land here on your journey?

“I now work in the alternative investment space, specifically in venture capital which focuses on investing in technology startups.”

Words of wisdom or advice for current Sachem students?

“Find what interests you and go for it. If you fail, try again, find something else. Don’t stop being curious. The most successful people failed thousands of times beforehand.”

-As told to Chris R. Vaccaro