How do we stack up?
It's no wonder that Stanford, with its deep ties to Silicon Valley, storied engineering school, and very public string of startup successes (Google, Instagram) was the first university to break the billion dollar, single-year fundraising mark in 2012. In fact, Stanford raised an amount nearly equal to Georgetown's entire endowment in one year.
Rather than dwelling on the feelings of sadness and impotence these figures should elicit in anyone bleeding Hoya blue, let us instead examine commonalities and turn this into a learning exercise for the future.
When crunching the data, the reality is that Hoyas stack up. Bloomberg Businessweek awarded our undergraduate business school top marks in the country for finance. And according to a recent study by a prominent entrepreneur and hyper-active angel investor, Howard Marks, Georgetown ranks #9 in the nation when looking at VC investment dollars per founder.
Indeed, startup culture is thriving on the Hilltop, with a burgeoning entrepreneurship initiative, a proper business plan competition, and an h.innovation program series that is drawing national attention with much-needed hackathons.
The Hoya ecosystem, however, still lacks a common thread running through it. Especially outside the university, where the ability to raise angel or venture funding and attract notable advisors is key to launching and growing any entrepreneurial venture. This is where the Georgetown network, for all its power on Wall Street and in the nation’s top law firms, falls short.
We need a mafia mentality
We (Ryan COL ‘01 & Ryan SFS ‘99) met at SXSW last year, thanks to the independent efforts of Devon George (‘01) to pull together Hoya founders for dinner. There we were, two Georgetown guys trying to leverage the ecosystem. As luck would have it, we found real opportunity. One of us has a startup raising money and the other has a funding platform for startups to help attract investors. Go figure.
If Georgetown wants to strengthen its’ ecosystem, it needs to foment and facilitate encounters like these on a massive, multidisciplinary scale, instilling in undergraduates and alumni a mafiosa mentality when it comes to helping fellow Hoyas succeed. Stanford has a “mafia”, even companies have mafias. Talk to any of our friends at Goldman Sachs recently? The point is that these organizations have created incredibly strong cultures that people are proud of and they let the world know it. So why not Georgetown? Collectively we need to promote our university as an institution that breeds creators. And we should broaden the notion of entrepreneurship outside of just “dot coms”. We have world-class comedians, each of whom probably encountered the same hardships of startup life along the way. The same is true for our alumni who pursue elected offices.
We have spent a lot of time discussing the Hoya ecosystem challenge and are committed to help fix it. As part of that effort, we have an exciting announcement to share which we hope will help ignite others to join in our efforts and support Hoya startups.
Event Farm is the first Georgetown startup to launch a fundraising campaign on the AlumniFunder equity platform. Why does this matter? It matters because it proves the Hoya ecosystem can work. And in this case, it goes even further because we’re hoping to attract other alumni to join in. It’s a great story for our school and we want our “mafia” to be proud of it.
As alumni, friends, and supporters of Georgetown, we encourage you to take a look at this opportunity. But even if you’re not looking to make an investment in a startup, hopefully you’ll join us in supporting fellow Hoyapreneurs and ultimately our alma mater. Our ecosytem needs to be bigger and louder. Our story is just one successful outcome that needs to be repeated and amplified. There are many more stories out there. Who’s with us?
If you’re a startup and want help navigating funding, reach out to us. If you’re an alumni looking to invest in Hoya innovation, take a look at the Event Farm campaign and/or reach out to us. Ditto if you want to work for a startup or feel you could offer mentorship or real services to one, reach out to us. And for those who’ve created successful endeavors, get involved and give back.
About Event Farm
Event Farm is an online invitation, ticketing and guest registration platform used by corporations, non-profits, venues and events of all kinds around the world. Currently Event Farm employs 16 full time employees 3 of which are Hoyas including co-founders Ryan Costello (COL ‘01) and Todd Cornett (COL ‘02).
www.eventfarm.com
About AlumniFunder
For entrepreneurs, AlumniFunder is a platform to activate accredited investors and alumni networks to invest in their startups. For investors, AlumniFunder is a tool to access innovative startups at a lower risk threshold while outsourcing investment management.
www.alumnifunder.com
Contact
Ryan Costello
ryan.costello@eventfarm.com
@costelloryan
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/ryan-costello/32/615/a03/
Ryan Meyer
ryan@alumnifunder.com
@sryanmeyer
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/sryanmeyer
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