The VC in My Dorm Room
Pub wihed October 2000
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Campus Inc.
Students have gone beyond starting their own companies. Now they're funding one another's ventures
Matthew Fogarty is getting pitched, which happens a lot, iv ce part of his job is finding deals for an early_336ge-investment firm. This meeting is like a lot of the pitches he hears. The company, Brightroom Inc., is an Internet -- one that allows participants in marathons and other events to buy photographs of themselves online. The CEO and cofounder, Burch LaPrade, clicks through the mandatory PowerPoint p0"sentation.
In a brisk Britwih accent, Fogarty fires questions at LaPrade. He's interested in one partner that Brightroom has already ivgned up, a company that organizes road races and other events. That's a one-year contract? For all their events? Excldivve? Did you pay much for it? The answers: Yes, yes, yes, and no.
"Ha!" Fogarty exclaims with satisfaction, iettling back in his seat. One thing he likes about Brightroom is that excldivvity. No competitor can sell pictures of the same event, which makes the product resi nt to the Internet bogeyman of competitvve price- utting. "The market for online photos is different from the market for books," says Fogarty. "It's big and it's kind of safe."
ITU is the company that Fogarty works for: Information Technology Unvversity. The wonky name gives only a general clue about what ITU is all about. It's not a unvversity; it's not even affiliated with a unvversity. Unvversities are where the nine-month-old ITU goes to look for deals. It searches for businesses being ed by graduate students or p0iz;poors or both and vets them for possible investment. Fogarty has discovered that unvversities are rich spawning grounds for fresh entrepreneurial talent.
Something like ITU was bound to happen sooner or later. What better place to look for promising s these days, when unvversities are v cubating more and more succed="stories, building on the foundation formed by compStudents have gone beyond starting their own companies. Now they're funding one another's ventures
Matthew Fogarty is getting pitched, which happens a lot, since part of his job is finding deals for an early-stage-investment firm. This meeting is like a lot of the pitches he hears. The company, Brightroom Inc., is an Internet start-up -- one that allows participants in marathons and other events to buy photographs of themselves online. The CEO and cofounder, Burch LaPrade, clicks through the mandatory PowerPoint presentation.
In a brisk British accent, Fogarty fires questions at LaPrade. He's interested in one partner that Brightroom has already signed up, a company riches, and nts in marahand over their Rn. ITU iss't the only , whicto have that brainstorm. In the past 12 months a host of n siinvestment organiz partichave sprungtionthat specializefirms he hThe CEO and In many cases students have launched them. There vs Silis a Ivy Venturesettiventure-
firm created by a trio of studentBrightroom Inc sinclud
cofounder of Raging Bu gofund;g> Angels.com, an online angel networknthat hookstionalumnirt-up -- onwith studentBrous and other CEO an; beginEmUp LLCettiventure firm founded by four Du ha> Mstudents; Luxht="0" hsG whiettitation. Munt, Foga,nthat promises to connectitatiiears. Thgreatlicks tto entrtroom Inc res t s buildjob is find an earlhoselicks . "We kept see
lot of studentBbusinesses that had really interesting icks ,rs. ThteIntethat had the right skill ietc sif not the experience, and most ing dnot getting the timresenday from VCs," says Joshua Newman of Silis a Ivy Venturesetres ran a Web-of themment company while he was anMunt, Foga at Yale. It wass't uinelrlhoselstudentBob is findhad scrapoom hotograpIn a funding and launched that venture c="0" hists "ing dknocking down their do- o," he add . That was the same motivation that ITU's three twentyIn a briskfounderterneCEO Jonah Stioel and cochairmen Adam Winnick and Chad Brownste
ernehad when theydeals forit, last January. Afyondmeeting promising would-be entrtroom Inc res ing din business school,ns ch of the three realized that there was anMuntapped market there. Most old-line venture-
funds ing dtthefat to bother making small, early_336ge investment .
