BRV Investor - Johnson Graduate School of Management

Quarterly | Q2 2012
BRV Investor
The Newsletter of BR Venture Fund
The Nation’s Only Student-Run Venture Fund
POP In and Start Up – New On-Campus Co-working Space
Contents
PopShop Startup Space
1
SPLAT
2
Greenstart Accelerator
2
Partner Profile:
Bill McAleer BS ‘73,
MBA ‘75
3
2011 in Review
AUM
$1.5MM
Firms Screened
59
Investments
Exits
1
1 (5.2x)
In Portfolio
9
About BRV
BR Venture Fund is the only
student-run seed stage venture
capital fund in the nation. Governed by 7 second-year MBA
students at the Samuel Curtis
Johnson Graduate School of
Management at Cornell University and supported by a network of nearly 50 first-year Associates, faculty, notable alumni
and
venture
partnerships,
BRV’s investments are evaluated, executed, and exited entirely by students.
2012-2013 Fund Managers:
Vinay Badami (COO)
Mandy Chu
Jenny Delaney
CJ Halabi
Eugene Hsu
Chris Seneta
Brian Stuckey
Thoughts or comments:
contact@brventurfund.com
The best businesses sprout from
the cross-fertilization of ideas from people in different industries, but at Cornell,
it can be surprisingly difficult to meet
students from other schools on campus.
Seeing this challenge, a solution was
conceived: a co-working space, (like
General Assembly in NYC) open to all
students, from any background, working
on businesses or interested in joining a
start-up.
In February, a group of student
leaders, including BRV Manager Jennifer
Delaney, approached Entrepreneurship
@ Cornell with the idea and sought funding to lease a space in Collegetown. E@C
supported the idea, and agreed to a onemonth test run of the idea, thus PopShop
was born. PopShop opened its doors in
Collegetown one month later, just before
Celebration 2012.
The shop is a narrow, 1,100
square feet space, but has a character
and life of its own. The walls sport magazines and shelves of books, ranging
from tech digests to Steve Jobs biographies, for inspiration. There is a table
with a whiteboard surface covered in
writing in the center of the room and a
drop-down screen for presentations in
the back. The PopShop also offers free
popcorn for students to snack on while
they work –– a feature referenced by the
shop’s name.
PopShop has events most days
of the week, organized by the students
running it. Events include guest speakers, entrepreneurial gatherings, and intensive working sessions. A culture of
peer-mentoring, risk taking, and hacking
has bloomed at the PopShop and proves
that there is extremely strong crossdisciplinary demand for entrepreneurial
ventures here at Cornell. The PopShop
has been so successful that it significantly exceeded the one-month test expectations, and was approved for an additional year-long lease extension. BRV will
continue to work alongside the PopShop,
hosting office hours for young companies and supporting the entrepreneurs
involved. We expect many new, exciting
start-ups to blossom, and are excited for
the enormous potential the PopShop
holds.
Check out the popshop website at:
http://popright.in/
2
BRV Investor | Q2 2012
“Thank You” To the Outgoing BRV Fund Managers!
BR Venture Fund’s 2013 Management
team (pictured at right) would like to
give our sincerest thanks to the outgoing 2012 managers for their dedication and commitment to BRV. The
2012 team has been instrumental in
building BRV’s relationships, deal
flow, and presence in the entrepreneurial community. We look forward
to perpetuating the growth and success of BRV.
Incoming BRV Fund Managers for 2012—2013. Back: Prof. David BenDaniel (Advisor),
C. Seneta, B. Stuckey, C.J. Halabi, V. Badami, Rhett Weiss (Advisor) Front: M. Chu, E.
Hsu, J. Delaney
Smart Phones + Lasers =
SPLAT
One of the more fun technologies to
come out of Cornell is SPLAT, a
Smartphone-Powered Laser Tag system. SPLAT was founded by Ricky
Panzer (Engineering ‘13) and were
finalists
in
the
Entrepreneurship@Cornell Big Idea Competition.
well as a GPS based radar that lets you
know where your opponents are hiding. The device keeps track of your
personal statistics and provides indepth social integration for a deep
level of gameplay. Changing games is
as simple as downloading a new app.
The estimated retail price for the hardware is $40. The Splat team is also
working hard to ensure that there are
plenty of games available at launch,
currently in production are: Laser Tag,
Capture the Flag, Kill the Carrier, and
Protect the Resources.
Cornell Team Helps Define
Accelerator’s Strategy
This semester, six analysts from the
BRV associate pool were selected to
join the Greenstart/BRV-EII internship
program. Greenstart is a clean tech
accelerator located in downtown San
Francisco. In the Spring 2012 semester,
BRV associates leveraged both on- and
off-campus resources to compile qualitative reports to help shape Greenstart's upcoming program and investment strategy.
To see their pitch, visit:
Splat has developed a system that revolutionizes the classic game of laser
tag by integrating your smartphone
with their hand held laser gaming console. The cell phone integration allows
the device to use the built in GPS and
accelerometer as well as to provide a
data connection through 3G/4G networks. The phone also provides a
large display for game statistics as
http://entrepreneurship.cornell.edu/
activities/bigidea
and jump to 45:00 in the video.
The BRV associates, Mandy Chu, Min
Chen, Simon Guo, CJ Halabi, and
Katherine Olaksen, began research in
early February, and traveled to San
Francisco to work in the Greenstart
offices over Johnson’s spring break.
The trip was a major success. While at
Greenstart’s headquarters, the BRV
team developed a market matrix
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The Nation’s Only Student-Run Venture Fund
3
BRV Investor | Q2 2012
Cornell team worked with the Greenstart team in a creative workshop to
establish solutions for some of Greenstart's portfolio companies' biggest
problems. Furthermore, some members of the team attended the Smart
City Symposium in downtown San
Francisco, giving them direct exposure
to subject matter experts. The entire
trip was capped off with a successful
networking event with bay area Cornell alum, local VCs, the Greenstart
team, and the BRV team. The BRV
team continued its due diligence and
presented its investment thesis to
Greenstart at the end of the semester.
Cornell participants pose at Greenstart. From left: Simon Guo, Katherine Olaksen,
Mandy Chu, Min Chen, and CJ Halabi.
screening tool that Greenstart immediately adopted and provided for other
Partner Profile:
Bill McAleer, BS ‘73, MBA ‘75
Big Red Ventures (BRV), the nation’s
only student-run venture capital fund,
is fortunate to have partnered with
several of our country’s premier venture capitalists. Periodically we will
profile these Cornellians and practitioners who have donated their scarce
time and considerable resources to
cultivate not only BRV, but Cornell’s
greater entrepreneurial community.
One of these partners is Bill McAleer,
Co-Founder and Managing Director of
Voyager Capital, a leading West Coast
information technology venture firm.
researchers follow. Besides the successful investment thesis work, the
He also sits on the Cornell University
Board of Trustees as well as the Advisory Council for the SC Johnson Graduate School of Management and Entrepreneurship @ Cornell. With over
30 years’ experience in roles ranging
from senior executive, to entrepreneur
and investor, Bill has been instrumental in challenging BRV to appreciate
Cornell’s vast pool of proprietary research, inter-college collaboration, and
entrepreneurial impetus.
With offices in Seattle, Silicon Valley
and Portland, Bill’s firm has particular
expertise supporting entrepreneurs
within digital media, software, clean
IT, and wireless technologies. These
verticals are among the most rapidly
evolving in the world. In contrast, the
nature of a student-run VC fund (read:
the obligatory turnover of its managers) implies a particular challenge in
archiving accumulated intellectual
capital in such fast-paced verticals.
In coming semesters, BRV will continue to lead due diligence on specific
startups that fit Greenstart’s investment strategy. In addition to BRV, the
CMC, EII, and E@C were all instrumental in helping to create this experience for associates.
Bill has helped us understand and
confront this issue in effective, durable
ways including management team
diligence and company valuation.
Further, he has supported BRV’s initiative to develop documented investment themes that will serve as critical
reference points for deal flow in our
most favored verticals.
Finally, Bill has piloted one of BRV’s
most innovative offerings to its dozens
of annual associates: the ability to
partner with his firm in supporting
operational projects within Voyager’s
portfolio.
This past winter BRV
worked with Elemental, the Portlandbased global leader in multi-device
delivery of live and on-demand video,
to prioritize its markets for transcontinental expansion. In summary, Bill
has helped BRV understand not only
the front-end diligence and valuation
of VC investing, but how to add value
within our portfolio.
The Nation’s Only Student-Run Venture Fund