Internship Spotlight: David Kilroy ’25, ClimateHaven
An internship with a New Haven-based climate tech incubator helped David Kilroy ’25 develop a vision for his post-SOM career.
We asked rising second-year MBA students to check in from their summer internships, where they applied the lessons of their first year at Yale SOM.
Internship: ClimateHaven, New Haven, Connecticut
Hometown: Cleveland, Ohio
Pronouns: he/him/his
SOM class you’re using on the job: Innovator, Financing Green Technologies
Go-to work lunch: Wow Tikka—and then an espresso from G Café for the afternoon!
After-work routine: Going for a run, playing spikeball, meeting with classmates for dinner, hiking East Rock.
Favorite thing about New Haven: I can bike to work, walk and explore New Haven, go hiking, or take the train to NYC or Boston any weekend I want!
This summer, I had an incredible opportunity to join ClimateHaven, a dynamic climate technology incubator based in New Haven, as an inaugural Bekenstein Climate Leader. In just a few months, I immersed myself in a vanguard community of climate tech innovators, leveraged my unique background in startup incubators, and expanded my professional network in the northeast.
ClimateHaven is dedicated to fostering innovative solutions to combat climate change. The incubator supports startups working on a wide range of solutions, providing them with the resources and mentorship needed to scale their impact. The goal is to assemble a full arsenal of tools needed for a sustainable green economy.
During my internship, I worked closely with amazing startups and founders, contributing to projects that spanned various climate tech domains. My role focused on pairing incubator participants with mentors, directly assisting startup projects, and sourcing new candidates for ClimateHaven support throughout the northeast.
This internship allowed me to build on my co-curricular experiences at SOM and develop new capabilities. I had worked with startups and incubators prior to arriving at SOM, and in my first year I participated in intensive innovation programs offered by Tsai CITY. However, I had relatively little experience with deep-tech startups, which generally emerge from university research labs and face a different set of challenges. The opportunity to deepen this expertise was incredibly valuable, and has given me a well-rounded understanding of entrepreneurial ecosystems.
During the internship, I got to shepherd startups through multiple phases of growth. For example, I accompanied VIRV from the company’s first contact with ClimateHaven until its decision to join the incubator, and offered support to Impact3D throughout the process of developing new hardware technology. I’m excited to continue following these startups after I head back to school.
The mentorship offered at ClimateHaven was another highlight of the internship. Guidance from Casey Pickett ’10, the company’s interim co-CEO, was instrumental in shaping my vision for a post-grad career. I also had the pleasure of getting to know 24 other Yale graduate students in the Bekenstein Climate Leader fellowship, a program that both made this internship financially possible and gave me an expansive understanding of the kinds of work available in the climate impact field.
My summer at ClimateHaven has been transformative, dovetailing with my professional interests and my favorite SOM extracurriculars. In the coming year, I plan to build on my internship experience by co-leading the climate deal team for the Meng Impact Investment Fund and organizing the Yale Economic Development Symposium. For any students interested in climate tech, I highly recommend seeking out experiences that provide a holistic understanding of innovation ecosystems—especially the bedrock organizations like ClimateHaven that are making a difference!
