Rough draft ventures invests in acenna9/13/2023 Gen Z is eager to find meaningful work beyond money, while still being ambitious and tuned in to the most powerful trends driving today’s world. At Founder Institute we’ve been mentoring an upcoming generation of Gen Z entrepreneurs, and some of the greatest interest in startups has come from people in this age group. I’ve seen multiple generations transform companies and tech investing over my years in the industry. Members of this generation are already putting their money to good use, starting companies and new funds, with over 20 percent and 19 percent of the 18- to 24-year-olds investing in stocks and real estate, respectively. “ I’ve spent every waking moment of my life the last eight years living and breathing university entrepreneurship … it’s pretty clear to me who is an exceptional university-based founder and who is just caught up in the hype.By 2030, Gen Z will become the largest demographic in the world economy, earning $33 trillion, or 27 percent of global income. “We are one giant talent scout with all these different nodes across the country,” Tarczynski added. The caliber is just as high.”Ĭontrary’s portfolio includes Memora Health, the provider of productivity software for clinics Arc, which is building metal 3D-printing technologies to deliver rocket engines and Deal Engine, a platform for facilitating corporate travel. “ The only difference between Stanford and these others universities is just the volume. that have comparable if not better tech curriculums but are underserviced,” Tarczynski explained. “We wanted to have more come from the 40 to 50 schools across the U.S. To date, the team has completed three investments in teams out of Stanford, two out of MIT, two out of University of California San Diego and one each at Berekely, BYU, University of Texas-Austin, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University and University of California Santa Cruz. This is the first time they are going all in.”Ĭontrary invests a good amount of its capital in Berkeley, Stanford, Harvard and MIT students, but has made a concerted effort to provide capital to students at underrepresented universities, too. This is the first time in many cases that these people are working on their companies full-time. “It gives you a tremendous amount of time to figure things out,” Tarczynski said, noting his own experience building a company while still in school. Admittedly, the roughly $100,000 investment Contrary deploys to its companies wouldn’t get your average Silicon Valley startup very far, but for students based in college towns across the U.S., it’s a game-changing deal. Last year, Contrary kicked off its summer accelerator, tapping 10 university-started companies to complete a Y Combinator-style program that culminates with a small, GP-only demo day. The firm has more than 100 “venture partners,” or entrepreneurial students at dozens of college campuses that help fill Contrary’s pipeline of deals.Ĭontrary Capital celebrating its Demo Day event last year “We thought, ‘What if there was a fund that could democratize access to both world-class capital and mentorship, and really increase the probability of success for bright university-based founders wherever they are?’ “Ĭontrary launched in 2016 with backing from Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard, Reddit co-founder Steve Huffman, SoFi co-founder Dan Macklin, Twitch co-founder Emmett Shear, founding Facebook engineer Jeff Rothschild and MuleSoft founder Ross Mason. “We really care about the founders building a great company who don’t have the proverbial rich uncle,” Tarczynski, a former founder and startup employee, told TechCrunch. The firm, which operates a summer accelerator program for its portfolio companies, closed on $2.2 million for its debut, proof-of-concept fund in 2018. And Prototype Capital and a few other micro-funds focus on investing in student founders, but overall, there’s a shortage of capital set aside for entrepreneurs still making their way through school.Ĭontrary Capital, a soon-to-be San Francisco-based operation led by Eric Tarczynski, is raising $35 million to invest between $50,000 and $200,000 in students and recent college dropouts. General Catalyst has Rough Draft Ventures. First Round Capital has both the Dorm Room Fund and the Graduate Fund.
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