MBA Student Venture Capital Fund Seeking Startups For Investment Consideration
Nittany Lion Venture Capital, an MBA student organization at Penn State’s Smeal College of Business, is in search of five or six startup companies that are seeking seed capital financing from a venture capital fund.
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (December 18, 2008) – Nittany Lion Venture Capital, an MBA student organization at Penn State's Smeal College of Business, is in search of five or six startup companies that are seeking seed capital financing from a venture capital fund.
Each semester, MBA students in Smeal's Garber Practicum entrepreneurship course assist startups with marketing plans, financial plans, business planning, and other business operations. They also perform due diligence to determine whether they will invest in the startup with funds from the $5 million Garber Venture Capital Fund.
Entrepreneurs who would like to have their startup considered for the Garber Practicum and investment from the Garber Fund should contact Anthony Warren, director of Smeal's Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship at twarren@psu.edu or 814-865-4593.
Firms will present their comprehensive business plan to Warren and the MBA students in the Garber Practicum in January. The students will then perform due diligence on the firm and in seven weeks determine whether to invest in the startup.
The Garber Fund, established in 1999 with a $5 million commitment from Penn State alumnus John Garber and his wife Bette, is used within a course environment for Smeal MBA students to experience firsthand all aspects of venture capital investment, including deal sourcing, due diligence, term sheet negotiations, closing, monitoring investments, engineering exits, and managing the portfolio. The fund is currently invested in several local firms, including Diamondback Truck Covers, Go2Athlete, and Indigo Biosciences.
The Garber Fund is part of the Nittany Lion Venture Capital Association (NLVC), an MBA student-run management group that works with small companies and other investment groups in early stage business planning, execution, and due-diligence assignments. The Garber Practicum forms part of Smeal's highly acclaimed entrepreneurship program, in which students are immersed in real-life creation of new ventures throughout their studies.
