Innovative students now have access to a new source of funding, as the University continues to increase its entrepreneurial support. The Brown Venture Launch Fund — a collaboration between the Dean of the College, the Social Innovation Initiative at the Swearer Center for Public Service and the Entrepreneurship Program — has received about six inquiries from students since its official launch March 7, according to Alan Harlam, director of social entrepreneurship.
The fund provides students with capital to transform their ideas into new enterprises. Funding is allocated in three intervals — $1,500, $3,500 and $7,500. Students apply for the first level of funding and are eligible to receive more money as their idea progresses.
"The Brown Venture Launch Fund is like a pipeline providing students with a platform to take the first steps. As the idea grows, students need more resources," Harlam said. "As the idea passes through new gates, if students accomplish the task they set out to do, (the fund) will support them even more."
The fund will build on two existing programs — the Entrepreneurship Program, which holds office hours to give students advice, and the Social Innovation Initiative, which offers boot camps focused on skill-building workshops. "Nothing exists in a vacuum. (The fund) is the first step for students to act out ideas that have been developed in a host of ways," Harlam said.
The fund has enough money to allot six to eight $1,500 grants, three to four $3,500 grants and one to two $7,500 grants each year, Harlam said. But, still in its early stages, it is "flexible in the total amount of money that it will provide students."
Without the fund, Harlam said he fears that many great ideas may never come to fruition and will "sit on shelves collecting dust."
"It's often hard as an entrepreneur to find out where to go for funding, and when you do find funding sources and the criteria are different," Jason Beckman '11, co-president of the Entrepreneurship Program, wrote in an email to The Herald. But the fund is "building a consistent set and aiming to make the information very accessible."
Monetary support is just one goal of the fund. It also provides student entrepreneurs with a community and a network to discuss and develop ideas, Harlam said. The Social Innovation Initiative holds peer critiques, or round table discussions, where entrepreneurs are invited to present their ideas to people interested in the entrepreneurial process. Peer critiques allow students to hear critical questions and suggestions and force them to see the gaps and strengths in their models, Harlam said.
"What we're in the process of creating is a true entrepreneurial community," Beckman wrote. "The programming tied to the launch fund will bring entrepreneurs together to share their ideas — and when entrepreneurially minded people get together to do that, the results are often amazing."
Though a safe place for discussion is crucial, the fund also helps students improve their pitches — honing the ability to sell an idea, not just trying to expose its flaws — said Roger Nozaki, director of the Swearer Center.
Tim Natividad '12 plans to apply with his project, Social Exposures. The project is work in progress, he said, but involves combining mobile applications with non-profit organizations. It will solicit photo essays from a different nonprofit each month, later compiling the photo essays into a publication.
The fund's three-tiered system makes sense, he said. Projects get the funding they need to leave the ground, and more money is available later if necessary.
The application process tries to gauge the viability of each project, he said. "Can we transfer this from paper to practice? That's the big take home question."
Hao Tran '14, who is working with an organization called FUNDaFIELD, is also applying to the fund. FUNDaFIELD, run exclusively by students, aims to build soccer fields near primary schools in South Africa, Uganda and Kenya. The organization has built seven fields, with an eighth in a fundraising stage, Tran wrote in an email to The Herald. It has raised $140,000 since 2007. "Another goal of FUNDaFIELD is to provide children with a safe place to play and to reintegrate former child soldiers (and) victims of HIV/AIDs … back into the community through sport," he wrote.
Tran plans to travel to Uganda this summer and hopes to receive support from the fund, he wrote. He has gained support from the Sport and Development Program at the Watson Institute for International Studies, and he has been working with Eli Wolff '00, a visiting fellow in international studies.
To receive the first level of funding, Tran must quantify the potential social impact of his program. The goal is to show the number of kids who have access to fields, the change in attendance and enrollment at schools, the number of students moving onto secondary school and officials' reactions to the program, he wrote. If he receives additional funding, Tran can investigate how FUNDaFIELD impacts communities at large.
He wrote he is optimistic he will move on to the second- and third-level grants and expand the initiative's operations to South Africa and Kenya, where FUNDaFIELD has already begun its work.
The fund is looking forward to its first round of applications, which will be evaluated on a rolling basis. There is a two to three week period before applications are accepted to assure ideas are not simply based on early applications. Harlam predicts that the first official review process will begin just after spring break.
