RDV attracted me as a way to gain hands on experience and autonomy as an investor beyond even what a traditional internship can provide. I am passionate about leveraging everything I learned in the Navy from being scrappy enough to locate the information critical to key operational assessments to managing and assessing team dynamics in tense, chaotic environments – not too different from the startup experience. It was the adventure of a lifetime and included a round-the-world deployment. I joined the Navy after graduating from Harvard College in 2016 with a degree in Applied Mathematics. “ 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.As a second year MBA student at MIT Sloan, I have emphasized re-shaping analytical skills honed as a naval intelligence officer into ones that can be applied to venture capital. “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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