Venture-backed start ups continue to hire UMass Boston student interns. Akiba recently tapped Devrim Aksu, College of Management, as its new human resources intern. Akiba is a Boston-based startup developing a database virtualization solution.

And RetireHub hired Sumeet Dubey, College of Science and Math, as a software development intern. Located in the Venture Development Center, RetireHub is a technology-powered provider of retirement planning and investment management services. Sumeet is our 31st student placed in the last nine months into a venture backed startup.

VC firms such are taking advantage of work being done by the VDC’s entrepreneur in residence, Dan Phillips, a business mentor with strong ties to the local tech community. Phillips has helped run four VC-backed software companies in the Boston area over the past two decades, including Concord Communications Inc., which reached a $800 million market cap, and most recently SilverBack Technologies, where he was CEO until it was acquired by Dell Inc. in 2007.

Maria Cirino, managing director of .406 Ventures, in an interview with Mass HighTech, said her firm is in the process of placing UMass Boston interns into its startups. The draw, she said, is not only access to affordable, talented young people in a time of tight cash, but also having someone like Phillips behind the process.

“You have an incredibly seasoned, successful entrepreneur doing all the legwork, matching our companies’ needs with the students,” Cirino said. And we have an incredibly talented Anna Tsui at the VDC who helps Phillips reach entrepreneurial students.

The Venture Development Center is Boston’s startup incubator that gets you to the point where you’ve built something impressive enough to acquire customers and raise money on a larger scale.