Startup Resources for finding a job with a startup, or raising money for your startup

Hello Duke students,

I often get asked by students about potential job leads at startups.  What I've found works best is pointing students to some of the best aggregated lists of startups online, and suggesting that the students reach out to Duke alumni at those startups (or contact the companies directly if there are no Duke alumni).   As a Duke entrepreneur told me "I like it when a student finds us, and explains why they'd like to work with us". 

So for those of you in a similar situation, I'd suggest you look at some of the resources below, try to find the startups that are a really good fit for you both industry-wise and geographically (as Brad Feld of TechStars likes to say, first figure out where you'd like to live).

Since many of you are going to spend significant time on this during the upcoming winter break, I thought I'd pull together some resources and make them available to you.  This is not meant to be comprehensive, but hopefully will highlight a few things that will be helpful to you.

Finally, some of you may enjoy trying out JobKatch to organize your job search, created by a local entrepreneur.  Check it out: http://www.jobkatch.com/

Best of luck.

Howie

Local Startup Job Resources

1) Downtown Durham Startups - http://www.downtowndurhamstartups.com/ (put together by Taylor Mingos '07, CEO of Shoeboxed.com)

2) Council for Entrepreneurial Development - http://www.cednc.org/ (check out the presenters at their venture conference)

3) LaunchBox Digital - http://www.launchboxdigital.com/ - local IT incubator

4) JoyStick Labs - http://www.joysticklabs.com/ - local gaming incubator

5) Synecor - http://www.synecor.com/ - a combination of a local life science incubator / venture fund (though mostly they do their own in-house developed projects)
6) Local VC firm portfolios

Intersouth Partners - http://www.intersouth.com/

Hatteras - http://www.hatterasvp.com/

Aurora Funds - http://www.aurorafunds.com/

Southern Capital Ventures - http://www.southcap.com/

IDEA Fund Partners - http://www.ideafundpartners.com/

SJF Ventures - http://www.sjfventures.com/

7) Research Triangle Foundation - http://www.rtp.org/main/index.php?pid=166&sec=1 - see the listing of companies in Research Triangle Park

8) Join the Entrepreneurship At Duke - Startup Matchmaker Google Group - http://groups.google.com/group/entrepreneurship-at-duke---startup-matchmaker/ - students post their startup needs here.

9) Southeast TechInventures - http://www.southeasttechinventures.com/index.php - spins companies out of universities

10) Listing of Duke Startups on DukeGEN (several local) - http://www.dukegen.com/dukestartups

11) First Flight Venture Center - http://www.ffvcnc.org/tenant_directory.cfm - local incubator

Non-Local Startup Job Resources

1) Join DukeGEN - with over 2500 members from Duke's entrepreneurial community

2) VentureLoop - http://www.ventureloop.com (see VC portfolio companies that are hiring)

3) DEMO - http://www.demo.com/ - check out the companies that pitched here

4) TechCrunch Disrupt - http://disrupt.techcrunch.com/2010-sf/ - check out the companies that pitched here

5) YCombinator Jobs - http://news.ycombinator.com/jobs - job listings at graduate companies of YCombinator

6) TechStars Jobs - http://www.techstars.org/jobs/ - job listings at graduate companies of TechStars

7) Search Capita IQ for recently funded companies - https://www.capitaliq.com/index.aspx - very good database on private fundings, access available at Fuqua's Library

8) Early Stage East - http://www.earlystageeast.org/ - check out the companies that pitched here

9) Florida Venture Fourm - http://www.floridaventureforum.org/subpage.asp?id=33 - check out the companies that pitched here

10) Southeast Venture Conference- http://www.seventure.org/ - check out the companies that pitched here

11) midVenturesLAUNCH - http://midventureslaunch.com/ - check out the companies that pitched here

12) Check out the Inc. 500 - http://www.inc.com/inc5000/2010/index.html - good way to identify growing companies in your area of interest / geography of interest

Resources for Raising Money

1) KickStarter - http://www.kickstarter.com/ - post a project to raise money directly from people

2) AngelList - http://angel.co/ - very active angel network

3) Angel Capital Association Directory - http://www.angelcapitalassociation.org/directory/ - listing of many angel groups, funds, networks

4) DukeGEN Investors - http://www.dukegen.com/duke-vcs - listing of Duke alumnus who are venture capitalists

5) AngelSoft - http://angelsoft.net/ - software that powers many angel groups - you can search for investors

6) Guide to Seed Fund Incubators - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/guide_to_seed_fund_incubators.php

7) goBIGnetwork - http://www.gobignetwork.com

8) ChubbyBrain - http://www.chubbybrain.com

9) YouNoodle - http://www.younoodle.com

10) Guy Kawasaki's thoughts on raising Angel Capital - http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/03/the_art_of_rais.html#axzz17XLFpHZB

11) NVCA Venture Capital Directory - http://www.nvca.org/index.php?option=com_mtree&Itemid=173

--
Howie Rhee, MBA
Managing Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Office A236
919-617-1123 Google Voice / Mobile
919-660-1929 Office

Learn more about Entrepreneurship at Duke - www.EntrepreneurshipAtDuke.com
and read our Duke Entrepreneurship Manual - www.dukeven.com.
Twitter: @EshipAtDuke

Fwd: Spring Metrics internship

Hey all, here's an opportunity with a local startup.

-Howie

• Spring Metrics, one of 7 companies selected for the LaunchBox Digital business accelerator program, is a completely new type of web analytics firm. Rather than providing website owners with mountains of data, Spring Metrics shows website owners which site visitors convert into customers, gives insights into why they converted, and provides practical guidance on how to get more conversions. We accomplish this by using a combination of pattern recognition, data analysis, and machine learning. 

• Market research - competitive analysis and research
• Marketing plan work - assistance with developing our marketing plan

If one person can work on both, great. 

Doug

doug@springmetrics.com

--
Howie Rhee, MBA
Managing Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Office A236
919-617-1123 Google Voice / Mobile
919-660-1929 Office

Learn more about Entrepreneurship at Duke - www.EntrepreneurshipAtDuke.com
and read our Duke Entrepreneurship Manual - www.dukeven.com.
Twitter: @EshipAtDuke

Looking for a position with a startup in the Northeast (Boston)?

Looking for a position with a startup?  These startups are hiring.

From our friend, Michael Gaiss

"Join a Highland-backed startup? 15 new openings posted on http://hcp.vc/cS3Ib4 @bullhornlive @fansnap @gemvara @namemedia"

Howie

--
Howie Rhee, MBA
Managing Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Office A236
919-617-1123 Google Voice / Mobile
919-660-1929 Office

Learn more about Entrepreneurship at Duke - www.EntrepreneurshipAtDuke.com
and read our Duke Entrepreneurship Manual - www.dukeven.com.
Twitter: @EshipAtDuke

Software Engineer for Duke gaming startup

Hi all,

Neat opportunity for a software engineering student at Duke.  This is to work with Peter Lamar, a Fuqua student starting a gaming company. 

"Peter Lamar" <peter.lamar@fuqua.duke.edu>

Howie

Software Engineer Opportunity

Are you interested in 3D gaming development?  Want to work on a ground breaking educational project in the medical field?

 

We are seeking 1-3 undergraduate engineers to assist in the development of a second proof of concept for a situation-based learning game that trains medical professionals. This is an exciting opportunity to work for a start-up company developing a serious game that is unlike anything that currently exists!

 

We believe we have identified a great opportunity to develop a scalable solution to the current education challenges facing the US Medical system.  Come work and train with an experienced Electronic Arts video game developer who made the Madden series.  In addition, our team includes MBA students at the Fuqua School of Business with expertise in medical device engineering, software product management, physician training, management consulting, as well as an experienced serial Entrepreneur from the alumni community.

This is a great opportunity if you are interested in video game development, simulation, and entrepreneurship.

 

Requirements:

·         Self driven

·         Enterprising

·         Innovative

·         Some experience with AI or Computer Graphics

·         Familiarity with the Unity platform

·         2 years experience with C++, C# or Javascript

We are willing to train the right candidate.

Background:

As a Computer Science major, I went to work for Electronic Arts on the Madden Team. After 3 years I joined a learning game startup called 360ed, where my team took a grant from the American Burn Association and implemented "Burn Center" (http://burncenter.360ed.com/), a medical learning game targeted to Doctors and First Responders. This game was a hit and went on to win at IITSEC 2008 in the serious games competition. 360ed returned to its charter to deliver k-12 solutions, and I am interested in starting a company to continue where Burn Center left off, creating learning simulations for various audiences within Healthcare. I have recently started my MBA at Duke and recruited a team which is currently developing this business opportunity.

 

Please respond to: peter.lamar@fuqua.duke.edu

--
Howie Rhee, MBA
Managing Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Office A236
919-617-1123 Google Voice / Mobile
919-660-1929 Office

Learn more about Entrepreneurship at Duke - www.EntrepreneurshipAtDuke.com
and read our Duke Entrepreneurship Manual - www.dukeven.com.
Twitter: @EshipAtDuke

Fwd: Opportunity for P4E - Artificial Intelligence Patents Ltd

Please see the description below regarding a company looking to connect with a few Fuqua and other Duke students. This could make an excellent P4E project for the spring. Please contact Sharon Belenzon: sharon.belenzon@duke.edu

Jon

(sent by Howie)

Artificial Intelligence Patents Ltd 

Intellectual property is central to corporations' growth and prosperity. The number of patent applications has risen drastically in the past decade reaching close to 1 million new applications per year in the United States and Europe alone. Patent application filings have risen at an annual rate of 4.7% since 1995. To be granted, a patent application has to demonstrate novelty and non-obviousness. To determine whether a new patent application is indeed novel and non-obvious, the patent examiner searches for related prior-art in other patent documents and public sources. 

What is the problem? 

The search for prior-art spans million of patent documents. The main challenge for automated prior-art search is how to identify scientific relations, based on textual features for large scale datasets of patent documents. Related scientific ideas usually include different terminology. Determining the conceptual relatedness of words and technical phrases requires specialized professional knowledge and evaluations of hundred of thousands related technologies. 

What is the current market solution? 

Several for-fee and not for-fee patent search engines have emerged in the past few years. Leading prior-art search engines are: USPTO, EPO, Google Patent, Dialog, Delphion, and FreePatentsOnline.com. These engines are based on textual similarity indices (mostly key-words) which assume that patents are more related as their textual overlap rises. 

Why does the market solution fail? 

There are three main reasons for why existing textual search engines perform poorly. First, inventors have an incentive to phrase their inventions in a manner that would be as distant as possible from the text of the most related prior-art, hoping this would mitigate the risk the application would be rejected by the examiner. Second, the textual domain used to describe scientific concepts is typically large. Therefore, similar inventions are likely to be described in different ways. Third, in numerous cases the prior-art stated by the patent examiner is from different technology areas than the application itself, where the textual overlap between the prior-art and the application is usually low. 

What is our solution? 

We develop a novel proprietary database that includes concepts that have been proven to be scientifically related. This database is a "dictionary" of terms that indicates the relevancy of one term to the technical problem that is described by other terms. Using artificial intelligence algorithms we develop a "trained" search engine that investigates the conceptual relationship between patent documents as implied by the ideas they contain, as opposed to their textual overlap. Alpha-version tests show that our search engine substantially improves the predictive ability of competing engines in identifying patent applications that are rejected by examiners. 

--
Jon Fjeld, Ph.D.
Professor of the Practice, Strategy
Executive Director
Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation
The Fuqua School of Business
Duke University
(919) 660-8052
http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/centers/cei/

Entrepreneurship at Duke: www.EntrepreneurshipAtDuke.com
A Duke Resource for Entrepreneurs:  http://www.dukeven.com/

--
Howie Rhee, MBA
Managing Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Office A236
919-617-1123 Google Voice / Mobile
919-660-1929 Office

Learn more about Entrepreneurship at Duke - www.EntrepreneurshipAtDuke.com
and read our Duke Entrepreneurship Manual - www.dukeven.com.
Twitter: @EshipAtDuke

Interns: Sandbox in Chicago

Hey all,

See attached for a VC/Incubator internship in Chicago.

It's also possible there are similar positions at LaunchBox (Durham), and Shotput (Atlanta, run by Duke alum David Cummings). 

See here for a reasonably good listing: http://www.fuelyourventure.com/the-ultimate-startup-incubator-directory/

Also, there are plenty of others, but for those of you interested in Chicago, see below.

Howie

From:        "Danny Levi" <Danny@sandboxindustries.com>
To:      
Date:        09/22/2010 04:59 PM
Subject:        Fuqua

---

 
Attached please find the job posting that we are going to use to get a few MBA interns for the summer. If you wouldn't mind passing this along to your friend at Fuqua and putting us in touch, that would be great. I will probably also post this to the standard Fuqua internship forum, but we are definitely looking for the students most interested in entrepreneurship. We are targeting the top business schools and ideally taking a total of 4-6 students, so there could be a decent amount of competition for the spot – I'm not sure how competitive it has been in the past, but hopefully we can attract top talent. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks a ton and talk to you soon.
 
Best Regards,
 
Danny
 

Danny levi Project Manager Sandbox Industries 312-228-4652 (w) 773-791-3953 (m) danny@sandboxindustries.com http://www.sandboxindustries.com

 
 
The information contained in this communication is confidential and intended only for the use of the recipient named above, and may be legally privileged and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please resend it to the sender and delete the original message and copy of it from your computer system. Opinions, conclusions and other information in this message that do not relate to our official business should be understood as neither given nor endorsed by the company.

--
Howie Rhee, MBA
Managing Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Office A236
919-617-1123 Google Voice / Mobile
919-660-1929 Office

Learn more about Entrepreneurship at Duke - www.EntrepreneurshipAtDuke.com
and read our Duke Entrepreneurship Manual - www.dukeven.com.
Twitter: @EshipAtDuke

Match with startup ideas in the Program for Entrepreneurs

Hi everyone,

The Program for Entrepreneurs (P4E) lets Duke students receive course credit towards starting a company.

The following teams are in the Program for Entrepreneurs, assuming they can register with at least two students.

Most teams are full, but if you see an idea that interests you, reach out to the team lead and see if you can possibly join their team.  This is at the team lead's discretion.

The first course starts in mid-October and is called New Ventures 1: Opportunity Evaluation.

Students from all of the schools at Duke (undergrad, grad, professional) are encouraged to join teams.  Most students can receive course credit, if they are on a team.

The list of active projects is below.

Incoming Projects (Class of 2012)

Last year's projects that are now in New Ventures 3 (Class of 2011)

These projects are in so far, assuming they can register two students:

• K Kane
• K Kane is a fine jewelry line whose pieces are as unique as the individuals who wear them. 
• Contact kate.kane@fuqua.duke.edu
• Watu Research
• Watu Research conducts mobile phone surveys in developing countries, helping organizations identify demand, monitor and evaluate programs, reduce the overhead costs of data collection, and drastically increase response times.  
• Contact steve.moses@fuqua.duke.edu 
• Golf&Fly
• Install and Operate Golf Simulators at busy airport terminals. 
• Contact Olgun.Kukrer@fuqua.duke.edu
• Nonprofit Grants Finder
• Help nonprofits find grants smarter, faster. 
• Contact tony.wang@duke.edu
• Academia
• Soccer schools with US steady presence in partnership with major European soccer clubs. 
• Contact bernardo.montero@fuqua.duke.edu
• Autoextract
• To allow surgeons to remove tissues from the body in a standardized minimally invasive way. 
• Contact ziad.mohamed@duke.fuqua.edu
• LifeDash
• LifeDash is an online dashboard that enables users to manage online accounts in a single place, focusing on only the important account-related data. In addition to account management, we provide users with targeted high-value daily deals based on their interests and transactions. 
• Contact ted.getten@duke.edu
• Medical Learning Games
• Scenario based medical simulations with gaming elements to enhance engagement and learning. 
• Contact peter.lamar@duke.edu
• Salsa Timoteo
• All natural, gluten free salsa and chips. 
• Contact peter.menachem@fuqu.duke.edu
• Good Groceries
• Allow grocery shoppers to optimize their shopping by linking grocery store databases to a database of health information about all products. 
• Contact Kevin.Howson@fuqua.duke.edu
• Neolitics, Inc
• Neolitics leverages a MOEMS-based chip, adapted for optical spectroscopy application, to provide process analytics for various sectors, particularly pharmaceuticals.  Given the chip-based design of the spectroscopy array, prototype device is 1/10th the size of standard systems, and is capable of dynamically referencing against a control sample, between readings. 
• Contact ali.radfar@duke.edu
• MoxMe! 
• MoxMe! is an infrastructure for supporting group dynamics across a range of popular social networking and collaboration sites. 
• Contact aju.joseph.john@fuqua.duke.edu

There were two events leading up to these selections, the Kickoff Event and the Idea Pitch Event.

Howie

--
Howie Rhee, MBA
Managing Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Office A236
919-617-1123 Google Voice / Mobile
919-660-1929 Office

Learn more about Entrepreneurship at Duke - www.EntrepreneurshipAtDuke.com
and read our Duke Entrepreneurship Manual - www.dukeven.com.
Twitter: @EshipAtDuke

Innovation Challenge

This may be of interest to some of you.

Howie

 

My name is Asher Spittler and I am the Director of The Innovation Challenge, the world's largest and most established MBA innovation competition.  I am writing to you today to let you know that our challenge is back and our eighth competition is now open for team and judge registration at: www.innovationchallenge.com.

The Innovation Challenge is a unique opportunity for graduate students to showcase their creative talents in front of their peers, school, sponsoring organizations and prospective employers.  Some of this year's highlights include:

• Awarding $25,000 in cash and the title of "America's Most Innovative MBA Team!"

• The Innovation Challenge will be held entirely online

• Students from all US graduate programs are eligible to participate

• Our new format provides a heightened experience for teams packed with valuable feedback, better interaction, and opportunities to network directly with sponsoring organizations that include Samsung Electronics, Shell Oil and their Jiffy Lube brand, and an anonymous sponsor whose interest lies in Social Innovation

Attached is the official invitation.  I hope you find our program beneficial and share the information with faculty and students.  Should you have any questions/concerns I am available at your convenience and would love to speak.  I can be reached at the contact information below and thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

All the best,

Asher Spittler

www.innovationchallenge.com

Asher Spittler

Director, Innovation Challenge

Idea Crossing, Inc.

3710 S. Robertson Blvd. Suite 212 | Culver City, CA 90232

Direct: 310.948.0356 | Fax: 323.924.9080 | Email: asher@innovationchallenge.com | www.innovationchallenge.com

Follow us at: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This message is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed, and may contain information that is privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you have received this message by error, please delete it from your records.

Invitation to CE10

There is an open invitation for Duke students that might want to attend this event in Western North Carolina.  I think the strongest appeal will be for students that are considering living in Western North Carolina (and therefore developing a network out there).

-Howie

-------

 

CE10 is coming together well, and we have a very strong line-up of speakers and participants.

 

Our retreat website,  www.carolina-entrepreneur.com  is now fully up and running. On the website you will find:

 

1) Updated Schedule and Participation Information

2) Event Logistics

3) On-line registration and payment

 

Retreat Registration and Payment using our Website 

 

We encourage you to use the website to register and pay for attending the retreat. If you have confirmed either by email or verbally that you will be attending, we need you to complete the registration and payment process online. 

 

As part of the online registration process, you will be asked to provide some biographical information about yourself.  This information is confidential and will only be accessible to other CE10 participants.  By providing your information the participants will be able to have a more meaningful experience.   Going forward you will also find suggested reading materials that have been posted by other CE10 participants.  

 

 

Retreat Registration and Payment by Mail

 

If you prefer to pay by check and mail it in, you can do so as well.  The details are as follows:

 

• Make out your check to – Carolina Financial Group – in the amount that coincides with your choice on the Retreat Fee Schedule found on the CE 10 invitation.
• Please include also your contact information and name of spouse or guest who may be joining you.
• If your check is a company check, please include your name with it.
• Mail it to:
• Carolina Financial Group
• P.O. Box 1076
• Brevard, NC 28712
• Attn. Carolina Entrepreneur 2010

 

 

 

Lodging 

 

Contact the Highland Lake Inn separately regarding your room reservation. 

 

Highland Lake Inn Front Desk - 1-800-635-5101.

 

If you have specific questions, do not hesitate to contact either:

Pierce Johnson or Marilyn Garren at CFG:

828.393.0088

 

 

We look forward to seeing you in October.

--
Jon Fjeld, Ph.D.
Professor of the Practice, Strategy
Executive Director
Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation
The Fuqua School of Business
Duke University
(919) 660-8052
http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/centers/cei/

Entrepreneurship at Duke: www.EntrepreneurshipAtDuke.com
A Duke Resource for Entrepreneurs:  http://www.dukeven.com/

--
Howie Rhee, MBA
Managing Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Office A236
919-617-1123 Google Voice / Mobile
919-660-1929 Office

Learn more about Entrepreneurship at Duke - www.EntrepreneurshipAtDuke.com
and read our Duke Entrepreneurship Manual - www.dukeven.com.
Twitter: @EshipAtDuke

Consumer Internet startup team seeking students

Hey everybody,

This comes from Jonathan Lee, a second year at Fuqua, who interned at GetSatisfaction this past summer and also worked with angel investors Freestyle Capital last year.  I heard his idea and like it.

Check it out.

-Howie

 

Who we are:

 

Team member # 1 is a Duke MBA student w/ a VC & strategy consulting background, and biz dev experience in Internet start-ups.

Team member # 2 is a Duke CS student w/ all-star programming talent and is responsible for back-end development.

Team member #3 is a Duke MBA alum currently doing biz dev at Yahoo.

We're all extremely motivated entrepreneurs with a great network of advisors and investors.

 

Idea:

 

We have a solid concept that will connect customers with local businesses by providing customers discounts while driving sales volume for businesses (We're NOT a Groupon clone, not even remotely close.). There's currently a strong momentum in the online-to-offline commerce and we want to take advantage of it by approaching it from a different angle than what we've seen. We've started developing the site and we need your help to take it to the next level.

 

You:

 

- Proven competency in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript- and understanding of their benefits and shortcomings.

- A strong knowledge of other programming languages, tools, and platforms, such as HTML5, Flash, and Rails is a big plus.

- Work diligently with minimum supervision while prioritizing effectively and responding quickly to business needs.

- Have or are working toward a CS degree (BS or MS) or possess equivalent technical experience.

- At least 1 year of experience in web development (have examples)

- Live near Duke or San Francisco. If not, open to the idea of eventually relocating. We'd like to be able to see you in person.

- A good eye for design and user experience is a huge plus.

- Insanely entrepreneurial and ridiculously hungry to get this company off the ground as one of the founding members

 

We strongly prefer to pay you in equity as we are still very early and want to motivate you with a "team" mentality. However, we can be flexible, within reason, to other pay structures.

 

Please contact Jonathan (jyl13 [at] duke [dot] edu) if you are interested in learning more about the opportunity.

 

Thanks,

Jonathan

 

--
Howie Rhee, MBA
Managing Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Office A236
919-617-1123 Google Voice / Mobile
919-660-1929 Office

Learn more about Entrepreneurship at Duke - www.EntrepreneurshipAtDuke.com
and read our Duke Entrepreneurship Manual - www.dukeven.com.
Twitter: @EshipAtDuke

Freestyle Capital - internship opportunity

Hello Duke student members of the Startup Matchmaker,

If interested in social media and working as an investor in startups, this is a pretty great opportunity for you.

(Fuqua student Jonathan Lee worked there this past year, and young alum Howie Liu worked there as a senior in Pratt)

Especially if you're interested in moving to Silicon Valley.

Freestyle Capital is an entrepreneurial seed-stage investor that backs capital efficient Internet startups. Duke/Fuqua alumnus Josh Felser and his partner Dave Samuel co-founded Spinner.com and Grouper/Crackle and sold them to AOL and Sony for $320mm and $65mm. Since its inception ~18 months ago, Freestyle has invested in 10 companies, one of which has already been acquired for $20mm (6.12x; 690% IRR). Freestyle is looking for an entrepreneurial FY or SY MBA to perform due diligence on potential investment opportunities. For more information, please visit: www.freestylecapital.com. 

If you are interested, here's the application: 

http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dE1SMXdBSTNKUXU4OTA4cWRVelkwOGc6MQ

Please no emails to discuss this opportunity, we're going to do this one through the application alone. 

If there's a next step for you, we'll be in touch.

Howie

--
Howie Rhee, MBA
Managing Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Office A236
919-617-1123 Google Voice / Mobile
919-660-1929 Office

Learn more about Entrepreneurship at Duke - www.EntrepreneurshipAtDuke.com
and read our Duke Entrepreneurship Manual - www.dukeven.com.
Twitter: @EshipAtDuke

--
Howie Rhee, MBA
Managing Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Office A236
919-617-1123 Google Voice / Mobile
919-660-1929 Office

Learn more about Entrepreneurship at Duke - www.EntrepreneurshipAtDuke.com
and read our Duke Entrepreneurship Manual - www.dukeven.com.
Twitter: @EshipAtDuke

--
Howie Rhee, MBA
Managing Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Office A236
919-617-1123 Google Voice / Mobile
919-660-1929 Office

Learn more about Entrepreneurship at Duke - www.EntrepreneurshipAtDuke.com
and read our Duke Entrepreneurship Manual - www.dukeven.com.
Twitter: @EshipAtDuke

Reminder - RSVP for Program for Entrepreneurs (P4E) Idea Pitch Event - Thurs, Sept 2nd, 4-7pm

Hi everyone,

A reminder to RSVP for the P4E Idea Pitch Event on Thursday, September 2nd.

All students are welcome to attend.

Program for Entrepreneurs (P4E) Idea Pitch Event 

Thursday Sept 2nd, 4-7pm

Location: HCA Auditorium

Details are here: http://www.dukep4e.org/pitch-event

Following the event:

- For undergraduates and graduate students: The Pitch Event will be followed by an Information Session for Undergraduates and Graduate Students (non-Fuqua), 7-8pm

- For Fuqua students: The EVCC will be hosting a mixer to connect with Fuqua students who participated in the P4E last year.

Action Items

Have a startup idea you'd like to bring into the Program for Entrepreneurs? Pitch your idea here to our advisors and to other Duke students.

RSVP to pitch an idea using this Google Form by Tuesday, August 31 at midnight.

Want to join a startup team? Come listen to the pitches.

RSVP on Facebook to attend the event 

All students are welcome to attend.

Howie

--
Howie Rhee, MBA
Managing Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Office A236
919-617-1123 Google Voice / Mobile
919-660-1929 Office

Learn more about Entrepreneurship at Duke - www.EntrepreneurshipAtDuke.com
and read our Duke Entrepreneurship Manual - www.dukeven.com.
Twitter: @EshipAtDuke

Fwd: Receive a $40,000 Fellowship towards starting an Energy company

Most of you are on our mailing list so you received this (if you didn't, you can sign up here for our mailing list)

In case you didn't receive it, forwarding it to you.  

Howie

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Entrepreneurship At Duke <entrepreneurship@duke.edu>
Date: Mon, Aug 23, 2010 at 12:03 PM
Subject: Receive a $40,000 Fellowship towards starting an Energy company
To: hwr2@duke.edu

Greetings,

 

You are invited to apply for the following Energy Entrepreneurship Fellows Program, if you qualify.

 

The objective of the Energy Entrepreneurship Fellows Program is to launch new green energy ventures in NC.  Four fellowships of $40,000 each will be awarded to students graduating in the Class of 2011.

There are two different aspects to advancing the green energy economy in North Carolina. One is to improve the energy efficiency of existing North Carolina businesses—which saves money, makes North Carolina businesses more competitive, reduces the strain on the state's existing energy infrastructure, and reduces environmental impacts. The second need is to support the creation of new clean energy technology manufacturers, installers, and energy providers in North Carolina, which will fuel economic growth and job creation in the state.  

The Duke University Energy Entrepreneurship Fellows Program will help solve one of the hurdles for entrepreneurs who wish to start new clean energy businesses in North Carolina by providing a 12-month fellowship to recent graduates to pursue the launch of a live clean energy venture. Drawing on the extensive resources of Duke University, along with funding from the NC State Energy Office, the Fellowship would provide financial, logistical, and intellectual resources over a 12-month period to assist recent graduates in launching clean energy businesses in North Carolina.

These fellowship program is be led by a team of faculty experts and administrative staff that bring together energy management and entrepreneurship technical expertise, proven success in running similar student internship and fellowship programs, and relationships with potential employer partners across North Carolina.  Duke University is uniquely positioned to help North Carolina's green economy grow. Tapping into our strengths of cross-disciplinary education we are, and have been, training the future skilled workforce that will help lead the transition to a sustainable energy future.

Administered by 

• Fuqua's Center for Energy, Development, and the Global Environment (EDGE)
• Fuqua's Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Next Steps:

• Read more about the Fellows Program
• Stay Informed - join our mailing list
• Apply Now

This message was sent from Entrepreneurship At Duke to hwr2@duke.edu. It was sent from: Duke University, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Fuqua School of Business Duke University 1 Towerview Drive, Durham, NC 27708. You can modify/update your subscription via the link below. Email Marketing by

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--
Howie Rhee, MBA
Managing Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Office A236
919-617-1123 Google Voice / Mobile
919-660-1929 Office

Learn more about Entrepreneurship at Duke - www.EntrepreneurshipAtDuke.com
and read our Duke Entrepreneurship Manual - www.dukeven.com.
Twitter: @EshipAtDuke

Medical Treatment Adherence - Possible startup opportunity

Hi everyone,

A reminder that next week on Thursday, 9/2, we are having our P4E Idea Pitch Event from 4-7pm at HCA Auditorium at Fuqua.

All Duke students are welcome to attend.  More details here: http://www.dukep4e.org/pitch-event

Get ready to pitch an idea, or just come listen and hear about the neat startups that are being formed (which you could possibly join).

This will be followed, from 7-8pm, by an information session for undergraduates and graduate students (non-Fuqua) introducing the Program for Entrepreneurs.

Also, see below from a promising startup opportunity from Mike Noel (Fuqua '11).  If interested, you should contact Mike.

-Howie

Pharmaceutical Device & Services Opportunity in Medical Treatment Adherence

 

Medical treatment adherence is currently, and will continue to be, a hot button issue in the healthcare / pharmaceutical / medical insurance industries.  There are tremendous business opportunities in solving this $100B / year problem for all health sector players.

 

The solution we are proposing and developing is a three-part solution…

 

1. Pharmaceutical Devices – The devices are event-recording devices.  The event is the removal of a pill from a device, which is recorded in a database that is accessed through a web portal user interface.
2. Web Portal – The web portal is used by all parties involved / affected by treatment non-adherence (i.e. patient, caregiver, insurance, pharmacist, pharmaceutical company, employer, etc.) to monitor proper medical treatment plan adherence.  The interface is one similar to mint.com or nikeplus.com where a patient's medical information, goals, adherence data, etc. are all centrally located.
3. Rewards / Incentives – By recording data with a device and making it available for monitoring on the web portal, we are able to offer the possibility of rewarding / incentivizing healthy behavior with an AMEX style rewards program.  This could represent an excellent medium for advertising to a captured audience and could also lead to programs geared toward addressing obesity issues, child rearing, and any other issue that could be addressed with rewards / incentives.

 

The current status of this project is as follows:

• Initial funding secured (by large material / life science corporation)
• Prototypes developed
• Base web portal developed
• Some partnerships and potential pharmaceutical customers established

Needs are:

• Market research / analysis
• IT needs
• Product design
• Web portal design
• Partnership development
• Investor development
• Customer development (and analysis of who customer is)
• Business plan creation
• Product launch / business launch
• Much, much more.

Contact Michael Noel (mike.noel@fuqua.duke.edu) if you are interested in joining this startup team!

--
Howie Rhee, MBA
Managing Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Office A236
919-617-1123 Google Voice / Mobile
919-660-1929 Office

Learn more about Entrepreneurship at Duke - www.EntrepreneurshipAtDuke.com
and read our Duke Entrepreneurship Manual - www.dukeven.com.
Twitter: @EshipAtDuke

Found this directory useful (it is perhaps a bit dated)

http://www.collegemogul.com/content/directory-incubators-seed-funding-venture-programs

--
Howie Rhee, MBA
Managing Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Office A236
919-617-1123 Google Voice / Mobile
919-660-1929 Office

Learn more about Entrepreneurship at Duke - www.EntrepreneurshipAtDuke.com
and read our Duke Entrepreneurship Manual - www.dukeven.com.
Twitter: @EshipAtDuke

Internship at NC IDEA as Entrepreneur-In-Residence

Hi everyone,

NC IDEA is a supporter of our students at Fuqua and routinely brings on a couple interns each summer.

It turns out they need an intern to start this week to help administer their Grants Program, in which they give money to a handful of startups each year.

Your role would, among other things, be to assess the viability of the various startups that apply for the program, and help come up with the best candidates.

This is a great opportunity for an MBA to learn about the startup world.  It is also a great way to get to know the entrepreneurial community, for those of you who may stay local after graduating.

NC IDEA is connected to Idea Fund Partners, which is a local venture capital firm.

If you are interested, apply here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dG93c3E3NTFIMEE0LVdYenJKVWE4LVE6MQ#gid=0

More info at: http://www.ncidea.org/

They are looking for someone to start ASAP.

Howie

--
Howie Rhee, MBA
Managing Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Office A236
919-617-1123 Google Voice / Mobile
919-660-1929 Office

Learn more about Entrepreneurship at Duke - www.EntrepreneurshipAtDuke.com
and read our Duke Entrepreneurship Manual - www.dukeven.com.
Twitter: @EshipAtDuke

--
Howie Rhee, MBA
Managing Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Office A236
919-617-1123 Google Voice / Mobile
919-660-1929 Office

Learn more about Entrepreneurship at Duke - www.EntrepreneurshipAtDuke.com
and read our Duke Entrepreneurship Manual - www.dukeven.com.
Twitter: @EshipAtDuke