April 7, 2008
Stanford University recently launched on on-campus venture fund called SSE Ventures. I think this is a great idea but I do not thing Stanford University is the only school that is doing this. So I thought I would ask SOMEWHAT FRANK readers to try and come up with other schools that might have similar programs. Here is a SOMEWHAT FRANK question for you:
What Schools Offer On-Campus Venture Funds?
Leave the school name, fund or program in the comments section below.
Sphere ItFiled under Business Community Education Funding Poll Somewhat Frank SomewhatFrank SomewhatFrank.com Startup Technologies Technology Web 2.0 Web 2.0 Culture Web/Tech
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Georgia Tech has something called the Edison Fund. http://www.gatech.edu/newsroom/release.html?id=1591
The Fund will be “evergreen,” meaning it will reinvest the proceeds from any liquidity events back into other opportunities. Fleming is establishing an investment committee to help guide decisions. The investments will generally be less than $250,000.
Posted by: Paul Stamatiou | Monday, April 07, 2008 at 01:09 PM
Err, that last part was a quote.
Posted by: Paul Stamatiou | Monday, April 07, 2008 at 01:09 PM
Hey Frank -
Check out the Wolverine Venture Fund from the University of Michigan http://www.zli.bus.umich.edu/wvf/
Fund is partly operated by MBA students who perform the role of Associate Partners.
Probably more focused on life sciences and advanced manufacturing than the Stanford fund due to location and local talent pool.
Posted by: Angelos | Monday, April 07, 2008 at 01:35 PM
I'm not aware of any school in Boson with a formal on-campus venture funds that invest large sums (>$50k) directly in student ventures.
However many schools in the area hold annual business plan competitions that a lot of young entrepreneurs turn to for funding.
For example, Akamai took off in part due to MIT's 50k b-plan competition (now $100k - http://www.mit100k.org)!
Posted by: Jay Meattle | Monday, April 07, 2008 at 02:42 PM
University of Washington - Seattle has something similar.
http://depts.washington.edu/techtran/
Posted by: Sharvil Shah | Monday, April 07, 2008 at 02:44 PM
I'm not sure but seriously things like this make me want to go to Stanford!
Posted by: Nick O'Neill | Monday, April 07, 2008 at 06:28 PM
There are a handful of schools now that have a decent size fund, but the majority have "centers" where projects can get free office space and funding usually under 5 digits.
genYcapital offers initial seed funding usually in the 6 digits.
Posted by: Jason Weingarten | Monday, April 07, 2008 at 06:40 PM
Sorry forgot the URL on the last one: http://www.genycapital.com
Posted by: Jason Weingarten | Monday, April 07, 2008 at 06:42 PM
Slightly different angle, but quite relevant at University of Maryland:
http://www.mtechventures.umd.edu/
Note this in particular from http://www.mtechventures.umd.edu/venture_creation/va/ --
"Once admitted into the program, VentureAccelerator company founders receive intense, hands-on assistance with a range of new business processes, including market validation, business planning, staffing and initial funding through grants and/or equity investment."
Posted by: Jared Goralnick | Monday, April 07, 2008 at 09:37 PM
www.stern.nyu.edu/studentsocialventurefund
NYU Stern Launches First Student-Run Social Venture Fund in Nation; Latest Innovation Supports School's Ongoing Commitment to Social Entrepreneurship
Posted by: jeremy | Wednesday, April 16, 2008 at 05:32 PM
Just to clarify Angelo's comment:
The Wolverine Venture Fund at Michigan is an entirely student run fund that has teams dedicated to Healthcare, Biotech, Hightech and Cleantech.
Posted by: Joe | Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 08:59 PM