Student directors of the new Campus Founders Fund gather for a meeting. The fund has $500K available for student startups.
The Campus Founders Fund is a newly created venture fund run for students, by students. The investment team consists of entrepreneurial-minded college students across Utah, studying everything from biomedical engineering to global supply-chain management.
With a $500,000 investment fund, the group’s mission is to provide pre-seed funding and top-level mentoring to the best student entrepreneurs in the state by investing up to $20,000 per startup and connecting management teams to startup CEOs and mentors in the state.
Campus Founders Fund operates in the same manner as any other venture fund – deal sourcing, hearing pitches, conducting due diligence and voting on deals.
Students can pitch ideas via the Campus Founders website and are later invited to pitch their business idea to the fund’s investment committee. After the presentation, the committee evaluates the risks and merits of the businesses and decides on whether to begin due diligence, where in-depth research is done on the business opportunity. Once all diligence information is compiled, there is another round of voting to determine if and how much Campus Founders will provide in funding.
One of the most common questions the fund has received is, “What are you looking for in a company?” The answer is threefold: the team, the product and the market. The team must be resourceful, dedicated and focused; the product innovative; and the market well defined and penetrable.
For strong teams with great ideas, Campus Founders offers convertible notes of up to $20,000 with no cap and no discount – one of the most entrepreneur-friendly terms available.
Above all, Campus Founders Fund aims to one of the most approachable venture funds available to student entrepreneurs in Utah. The fund challenges students to change the world before graduation. Learn more at www.campusfounders.com or email info@campusfounders.com.
