Starting this thread for the parents of aspiring or current entrepreneurs and venture founders.
What have your kids experiences been as they conceptualized their ventures and grew their companies and how did their academic experiences and institutions support them? Did they pursue MBAs or participate in incubators or accelerators (description below)? What funding sources did they draw upon and access?
VC 101: The Angel Investor's Guide to Startup Investing | FundersClub.
Our ds is currently on this path.
He is a second year MBA at the Stanford GSB. Support has been extensive, IMO. Stanford is hugely entrepreneurial in both course offerings and resources. He and his co-founder (who graduated from the GSB last year) took their Start Up Garage course last winter quarter. They raised significant funds last spring through Kickstarter for an industry demand study which was completed late this fall.
Ds received a Botha-Chan fellowship which enabled him to continue working on their start-up over a portion of the summer.
They are just now getting to the seed round stage. They have determined the amount they need to raise for next steps. To my knowledge, they are not going the accelerator route. I am not privy to all their inner workings at all.
As a parent, it is both exciting and nerve-wracking. But, I have told my ds that now is the time to take risks. Before returning to business school he had MBB and then FAANG (no idea what acronym is used now) employment. He didnāt go to b-school to check another, āsafe,ā box.
We had some good discussion about startups/entreprenuership on your earlier thread where @eyemgh, @seal16 , @123txmom, and @1Rubin posted that their children were involved in startups, and I posted my own experience back in the 80s. Now that some time has passed, perhaps they can chime in with how those ventures are going and what their children have learned.
How is your sonās startup going, @Catcherinthetoast? What have you and he learned in the past few years? Are you still nervous?
For students/parents who have gone this route - did the existence of undergrad incubators and entrepreneurship minors play into the college decision at all?
My kid had an idea for a venture before he applied to colleges, so he looked very closely at what entrepreneurship support was offered at the schools he applied to. Ultimately, this was the primary criteria that drove his school choice.
He took full advantage of what Brown had to offer in terms of dedicated staff and curriculum, access to successful alumni founders, in house competitions and VC funding, etc.
While in college he went through a highly reputed external incubator program and was just accepted (his company) into an accelerator. Throughout this journey he has benefited from the resources, reach and alumni of his undergraduate school.
Reading that thread from several years back I am reminded just how cynical I wasš.
Thank you for reminding me about this discussion two years ago. My son learned from the failed startup and his own business is running strong almost ten years now. DD was part of few startups at MIT, worked first two years at the large tech company post graduation, joined VC fund part time while working full time at another tech company. She decided that she wants to get married and start a family in the next few years while continuing advancing her career so large tech company with good benefits and time off works better for her long term goals. Linking to the dating discussion on another thread, dating startup founders with her previous VC experience she canāt help but to evaluate the potential of their startup and most of them seem not to have a long time sustainable future but few do.
Our sonās company produced a product that was named one of Time Magazineās Best 100 New Products of the Year. He was named on the patent. Itās a great device, but like many new things it has struggled to find its market. Heād always been recruited off and on, but at three years the volume increased, mostly from FAANG companies. Heās at one of them today. He loved the experience and it added immensely to his skill set and network.
D is still with startup that she joined right after graduation. Her boyfriend and other friends have left. Startup was acquired by venture capital groups and it seems like the atmosphere at company has changed. My impression is VC groups want a return on their money and maybe push certain aspects of the company to get their return. With acquisition comes a new management which may not be the best fit for a startup and dealing with people who are very ātechieā
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