Student Managed Venture Fund Created

The Dakota Foundation has established a new initiative with the University of North Dakota (UND) Center for Innovation Foundation to provide educational opportunities for UND students interested in venture capital investments in entrepreneur ventures.  Dakota Venture Group has been funded through a grant to the UND Center for Innovation Foundation. 
 
Bart Holaday, chair of the Dakota Foundation said, “My wife Lynn and I want to give students the opportunity for hands-on learning from investing in startup ventures to train both aspiring venture capitalists and emerging entrepreneurs who need to know what it takes to attract equity investment.”  He added, “The real world of venture investing is identifying deals, hearing pitches, determining the valuation of a venture, negotiating terms, helping grow profitable ventures and monitoring the investments in the portfolio.  Graduates from UND who have this practical venture investment experience will have a competitive advantage if they want to be entrepreneurs or venture capitalists.”
 
The Venture Fund is unusual among college-based investment funds because students gain real world investment experience though researching and investing in pioneering startups in the region rather than publicly held companies to build a portfolio.   There are only three other universities in the country known to have student-run venture funds: University of Utah, University of Michigan and Cornell. “This places the UND Entrepreneur program in an unique and special position among the nation’s entrepreneur programs,” says Bruce Gjovig, Director of the Center for Innovation.
 
Gjovig noted, “College students are immersed in technology devices and products and have a knack for uncovering emerging innovation which may be an investment opportunity. This will be an opportunity for entrepreneurial college students to identify innovative technologies and consumer trends, both as entrepreneurs and as investors.” 
 
Dakota Venture Group will be a student-managed venture fund to invest in student ventures as well as regional growth companies.  The fund will be managed by four to six seniors in the entrepreneurship program or MBA students. The entrepreneurship program has grown to 50 majors and 80 students in the entrepreneur track (minors) across various colleges on campus, allowing for a diverse pool from which to draw. The students will find, evaluate, price, structure and monitor investment deals.  The fund will invest in ventures created by students and recent UND graduates as well as in venture capital opportunities in the North Dakota-Minnesota region.  Any returns on the investments made through the fund will be put back into the fund pool to continue the venture capital fund.

The Dakota Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in 1997 by Bart and Lynn Villella Holaday to focus their philanthropic efforts on initiatives that foster social entrepreneurship in their respective home states of North Dakota and New Mexico.  www.DakotaFoundation.org.
 
The Center for Innovation helps entrepreneurs, innovators, researchers and students launch new technologies, products and ventures, develop business and marketing plans, access talent of universities and secure venture financing. The Center operates the Skalicky Tech Incubator and the Ina Mae Rude Entrepreneur Center, as well as coordinates the development of the University Technology Park. The tech incubator hosts 23 entrepreneur ventures employing more than 110 people. The Center was among the first technology and manufacturing outreach centers in the nation and has helped launch more than 440 new products and ventures since it was formed in 1984. The Center has won four national awards for excellence in innovation and technology entrepreneurship. The Center is a division of the UND College of Business and Public Administration. www.innovators.net.