DreamIt VenturesDream-It Ventures is a pre-seed venture capital firm that is focused primarily on assisting students who have great ideas achieve their business dreams. More specifically, Dream-It supplies: - Seed Funding
- A Collaborative work space in Philly
- Mentors and Advisors who have "been there and done it" before
- Donated legal, accounting and administrative help to form a company properly
- Introductions to funding sources (including Angel Investors, Venture Capitalists, private investors and public sources of funding)
Dream-It will be accepting applications into their program up until March 15th this year. If you are invited and accepted, you will participate in a 3-month program that runs from late May through late August, the typical student summer break. During that time, you will receive seed funding, mentoring, education and finally on Funding Day, a chance to present to VCs, private investors and other funding sources. Over 170 VCs, angels, etc.. attended Funding Day last year. Also, in some cases Innovators may have great technical knowledge but might like to work with someone with great business skills. Accordingly, Dream-It also accept Strategist applications -- from people with strong business skills who are interested in working fulltime during the Summer with a DreamIt Company. In addition Dream-It is now also accepting applications from Hackers - folks with great programming skills who may want to join one of the teams for the summer or longer. Last year, Dream-It had a successfull season. They funded 12 business - up to $30,000 per business and 3 out of the 12 went on to raise substantial monies and some are still bootstrapping currently. They would like a repeat season however instead of just getting MIT and Harvard students in the program from the Boston area, they'd like to see some Babson students in the program. If you are looking for work this summer or if you have an idea but need help with funding, this is a great way to get help. Please check out their website to apply: www.dreamitventures.com. Summer@Highland 2009In its third year, Summer@Highland is designed to provide selected student entrepreneurs with the environment and resources for advancing their startup initiative/company to the next level. Participating entrepreneurs/teams will receive a financial stipend and complimentary work space in either our Lexington, Massachusetts or Menlo Park, California office. The teams will have access to Highland investment professionals along with further resources for injecting real-world advice, insight and perspectives into the entrepreneurial and company-building process. Full details on this year’s program and an application form can be at www.hcp.com/summer.
Participating teams in the Summer@Highland 2009 program are under no obligation to Highland after the summer. That being said, advanced initiatives/companies may qualify for seed financing and/or additional involvement by the Highland team to help accelerate company growth. Further terms and conditions may apply for those that qualify for these options (evaluated on a case-by-case basis) and are interested in taking advantage of them.
What we’re looking for in 2009
We are especially interested in having you spend the summer with us if:
- You have a leadership team with vision, passion, and drive;
- Your initiative is built around a breakthrough idea that is scalable and monetizable;
- You’re pursuing a large addressable market opportunity with a product/service that has the potential to be highly-disruptive in its area;
- Your business initiative is already showing momentum and (ideally) some demonstrable market traction (i.e., you’re well beyond concept);
- You’re operating in a sector that we focus on – information and communication technology, digital media, life sciences, advanced materials & semiconductors, cleantech; and,
- You can direct us to some advisors who see your business’s potential as you do.
Particulars of Summer@Highland 2009
- The program is open to current undergraduate or graduate students, post graduate docs, as well as recent grads (December 2008 or later). At least one participating member of the team must meet this criterion.
- Teams can comprise 1 to 4 persons.
- A single person team will receive a $7,500 stipend for the summer, if selected.
- A multi-person team will receive a $15,000 stipend, if selected.
- Participating teams are required to work full time for a minimum 10 weeks on their initiative. Start and end dates are flexible and are to span the period of mid-May through September 2009.
- Participating teams will need to reside in one of Highland’s offices (Lexington, MA or Menlo Park, CA) while participating in the program.
- Each participating team will have a Highland sponsor who will be the team’s gateway to advice and counsel from Highland’s investors and industry network.
- Participating teams in the core Summer@Highland 2009 program are under no obligation to Highland after the summer. Further terms and conditions may apply for advanced initiatives that qualify for and are interested in pursuing seed financing and/or additional involvement by the Highland team.
How to apply
- Please complete the brief online application (available at www.hcp.com/summer).
- Attach to your application (1) resumes/bios for each team member, and (2) up to two referrals/letters of recommendation (recommended). The latter may be from faculty & administration, board or advisory group members, or others affiliated with close knowledge of your initiative and/or team members.
- You may also consider optionally attaching (1) executive summary of your initiative/company, and/or (2) a link to a 1-2 minute overview / elevator pitch video via YouTube, Vimeo, etc.
- The application deadline for consideration in the 2009 program is Thursday, April 9, 2009.
- Selected projects will be notified via email no later than May 1, 2009.
Plug and Play Tech Center, Sunnyvale, CA Plug and Play and Amidzad invested in 7 companies out of top US universities. - MIT – Scanscout
- Cornell - College Freeway, Sendori, TechDirt TokBox
- Stanford - OpTrip, Melodis
We would also like to introduce our startup boot camp opportunity to the Babson students. We are going to launch this camp in conjunction with top tier VCs and would like to fund about 20 companies this summer. This is a very similar package to TechStar, with exception of the teams being housed at Plug and Play Tech Center with over 100 other startups as mentors and introduction exposure to over 20 VCs. The entrepreneurs would be part of Circle of CEOs which would have another 8 more advanced startups which could also be their mentor. In other words here are some of the most valuable points that Plug and Play Tech Center offers: - Community of more than 115 startups
- Have raised more than $300 million
- Have over 20 VCs visiting Plug and Play Tech Center every other month
- Work with over 100 angels on co investments
- Have over 20 corporate relationships
Other student opportunities include internships this summer, permanent jobs at the startups within Plug and Play, helping students found their own startups. |
