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