大學生寢室創業基金尋找下一個Facebook
大學生在寢室創業已經不是什么新鮮事，扎克伯格在寢室里打造的Facebook就已成為校園創業傳奇。然而，目前面向大學生的創業基金一般都要求年輕的創業者們放棄學業，專心創業。但是，大學生寢室基金卻是個例外。有了它的資助，大學生們可以魚與熊掌兼得，求學創業兩不耽擱。
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????當今新一代的年輕創業者的大學寢室就是前輩們創業時的車庫。因此，毫不奇怪，一些風險投資公司已聘請學生“星探”在大學校園內搜尋有前途的初創企業。 ????但迄今為止，還沒有風險投資公司授權學生做實際的投資決定。首輪資本公司（First Round Capital）是一個例外，它已承諾向大學生寢室基金（The Dorm Room Fund，簡稱DRF）出資50萬美元。 ????具體的運作方式是：首輪資本公司會在費城地區的大學聘請8名在校學生，負責搜集和投資由在校學生或新近畢業學生創立的初創企業。投資不限行業，通常投資額為1萬-2.5萬美元。 ????首輪資本公司合伙人喬什?科佩爾曼一開始會擔任大學生寢室基金投資委員會的成員，但他的目標是最終實現該機構的自立和自治。這意味著這些學生未來需要籌集外部資本，挑選他們（畢業后）的繼任者。 ????科佩爾曼在一篇博客中寫到： ????現在用較少的錢就可以創建一家公司，但它并不意味著完全不需要錢。而且，學生群體已經承擔著五位數的貸款用于支付學費，他們要找到、并獲得追加資本通常都很難。朋友和家庭往往已經捉襟見肘，而且大多數情況下都已竭盡所能減輕在校大學生的負擔。另一方面，我們可以看到很多非常出色的企業孵化器和加速器的增長——但它們通常都要求學生退學（或從大學“休學”）。而且，傳統的風投家不會開出2.5萬美元的支票為在讀學生的想法提供資金。很多創業者都說過：“籌集最初的2.5萬美元，難度遠遠大于后來的200萬美元”。 ????科佩爾曼補充說，如果費城的這個試點項目取得成功，他希望能把它推廣到其他城市。 ????首輪資本公司承諾出資的50萬美元將來自其第四只基金，這只基金最近在籌集了1.35億美元資本后剛剛封閉。 ????譯者：早稻米 |
????The dorm room is for today's generation of young entrepreneurs what the garage was to their forefathers. So it's not surprising that several venture capital firms have hired student "scouts" to patrol campuses for promising new start-ups. ????But, until now, no venture capital firm had empowered students to make actual investment decisions. The exception to that rule is First Round Capital, which has committed $500,000 to what it's calling The Dorm Room Fund. ????Here's how it works: First Round will hire a team of eight current students at Philadelphia-area universities, who will be expected to source and invest in startups founded by current students or recent graduates. No parameters on company sector, with typical investment sizes of between $10,000 and $25,000. ????First Round partner Josh Kopelman will initially serve on the DRF investment committee, but his goal is for the effort to eventually be self-sustaining and self-managed. That means that the students will be asked to raise outside capital, and also pick their own successors (upon graduation). ????In a blog post, Kopelman wrote: ????Just because it takes less capital to build a company now, doesn't mean it doesn't take any. And, for a student population already taking out five figure loans to pay for school, finding and obtaining that additional capital is often extremely difficult. Friends and family are usually stretched thin, and in most cases, already do whatever they can to ease the burden on their college relatives. At the same time, we've seen the growth of many wonderful incubators and accelerators – but those often require a student to drop out (or take a "leave of absence" from college). And traditional venture capitalists are not optimized to write $25K checks to fund a student's idea while they are still in school. We've heard from several entrepreneurs claiming that it was "much harder to raise our first $25,000 then our next $2 million." ????Kopelman adds that if the Philadelphia pilot program is successful, then he hopes to bring the program to other cities. ????First Round's $500,000 commitment will come from its fourth fund, which recently closed with $135 million in capital commitments. |
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