BoxGroup Partner Claire Smilow Plans Harvard, MIT Visits to Spot Tech Trends

BoxGroup partner Claire Smilow plans to visit Harvard and MIT again this year to meet students and spot shifts in technology and markets relevant to the firm's portfolio. She said the trip will be her second visit to the schools in 2026 and called campuses a “fantastic place to recruit for the portfolio.”

Smilow first met Cursor founder Michael Truell through interviews for Dorm Room Fund, a student venture fund. BoxGroup later invested in Cursor, an AI coding company in its portfolio.

At a campus conversation in fall 2024, about four of 20 to 25 students raised brain-computer interfaces, an area Smilow was watching. She also follows robotics and quantum computing.

SpaceX completed its acquisition of Anysphere, which operates Cursor, on Aug. 14 in a stock-based merger with an implied equity value of $60 billion. The merger converted Cursor common and preferred shares into rights to receive 389,289,254 SpaceX Class A shares.

The deal involved $42.5 billion in GAAP purchase consideration and $23.4 billion in equity awards tied to post-acquisition service. The awards are subject to future forfeitures. Cursor contributed $608 million in revenue from the closing through Sept. 30.