Living Entrepreneurship Blog / Babson Entrepreneurs

#How2Tuesday: How 2 Raise from a Student Venture Fund

The Blank Center’s #How2Tuesday series continues on Tuesday, April 10 at 5pm in Luksic 101 (note room location): How 2 Raise from a Student Venture Fund with Contrary Capital, Dorm Room Fund and Rough Draft Ventures!

We’ve all heard of student venture funds, but how are they different from standard VC funds? Shereen Shermak, Partner, SoCoVentures syndicate, Advisor, Flybridge Capital Partners, will be moderating a panel with reps from three student venture funds, where we will discuss topics including:

•    How student venture funds work
•    How to engage with a student venture fund
•    What student venture funds look for in startups
•    What resources are available to entrepreneurs looking for outside capital

About Shereen Shermak
Shereen is a Boston-based angel investor, operator and entrepreneur, Partner in SoCoVentures syndicate and an advisor to Flybridge Capital Partners in the Boston region.

Shereen served as a Fund Manager and CEO at Launch Angels, a Boston-based seed stage VC firm. She co-founded BuysideFX, where she led Product and was a member of the management team, and held a similar role at Boston-based Currensee (acq. Oanda). Her earlier career consisted of launching internal fintech ventures for large financial services firms, after joining the technology strategy firm DiamondCluster (acq. PWC) in its early days. Shereen also spent six years working as an environmental engineer after graduating from Duke University’s School of Engineering.

Shereen received her M.B.A. from MIT’s Sloan School and holds an M.P.A. from Harvard’s Kennedy School. She currently serves on the Board of Overseers of Big Brothers Big Sisters Massachusetts Bay.

About Will Manidis, Dorm Room Fund
Will Manidis is a partner at Dorm Room Fund, a student-run venture capital firm backed by First Round Capital. After a successful tenure running a mobile health startup, PathwaysAI, Will is now a student at Olin College studying the intersections of computing and health.

 

 

 

About Jonathan Marchetti, Contrary Capital
Jon Marchetti is a senior at Babson College who has been with Contrary Capital since August of 2016. He was one of the first Venture Partners ever hired by the fund. On campus, he has always had an affinity for entrepreneurship and startups, having lived in eTower since sophomore year. He will be finishing up his degree this spring with a concentration in Business Analytics and Entrepreneurship. His passions include Boston sports, tech-entrepreneurship, and data science. Feel free to contact him any time at jonathan(at)contrarycap.com

 

About Mojia Shen, Rough Draft Ventures
A senior at Wellesley College, Mojia Shen has spent the last four years building up the startup ecosystem across campus. As a sophomore, Mojia founded WeStart, the Wellesley Entrepreneurship Club, which serves to encourage students who aspire to be an entrepreneur, in both commercial and social areas. Mojia’s entrepreneurial spirit can also be found in her creation of Flavory, a platform that helps stay-at-home mothers in Mexico sell home-made food, and Revive, a nonprofit that supports families who have lost their only child. A computer science and psychology major, Mojia interned at Redfin as a product manager this past summer and previously McKinsey.

See you on Tuesday, April 10 at 5pm in Luksic 101!

What are #How2Tuesdays?:
Want to learn something really practical to get your startup moving in the right direction? #How2Tuesdays are short, workshop style sessions meant to bring you very specific, user friendly instruction on some of the most important things you need to know how to do for your venture. Every Tuesday at 5pm in the Blank Center!