Student Managed Venture Funds
March 9, 2009
College Mogul, a blog following college entrepreneurship, recently wrote a post on “Student-Managed Venture Funds are the Future for College Entrepreneurs”.
Certainly, as student driven entrepreneurship continues to increase and universities seek ways to enable this trend, it makes sense for colleges to follow the “early leaders”, offering students this avenue of funding (not to mention the real world experience of working through the VC deal lifecycle).
Fortunately, for Penn State entrepreneurs, the Smeal College of Business is a leader in this space, with its MBA student-managed Garber Venture Capital Fund.
From the Smeal web site:
The fund, established in 1999 thanks to a $5 million commitment from Penn State Alumnus Dr. John Garber, and his wife Bette, brings reality to the teaching of entrepreneurism and venture capital by enabling MBA students to become actively involved in the process of equity investment and new ventures. Students examine current investment opportunities and decide whether to invest from the fund in a particular transaction. Interaction with external private-equity groups provides an opportunity for students to experience the complexities and pressures of the volatile private equity sector.
