And if you can’t find them, find their “lookouts.”

Venture-capital firms like Sequoia and Founders Fund employ Stanford students to find other students who might be making the next Instagram in their dorm room. Here’s one former Stanford campus ambassador for Sequoia on how he got the job and how it worked:

How do people generally become student ambassadors for Sequoia?

It’s both cold calls and referrals from current ambassadors.

What does being an ambassador entail?

I always had my ears open to meeting interesting people on campus, and then, once a year, did a campus landscape, so just reporting on what things I was involved in and if there was anything interesting going on there. One time, I helped set up an event, bringing in one of the partners from Sequoia to speak at Stanford.

Did they pay you for the work?

No.

You did it for the network opportunities?

Being part of this community is super-helpful for me.