The B1G Ten: Is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. It is based in suburban Chicago, Illinois.
B1G Ten Ventures: An idea for an investment firm that pools together the capital, resources, and talent from The B1G Ten universities to grow the Midwest & West coast tech ecosystems.
Ever since Steve Case coined the phrase “Rise Of The Rest” when talking about emerging technology ecosystems that are outside of the traditional hubs that people think of. Myself being from Michigan I started to think more about what the Midwest as a region is missing when it comes to creating a mature technology ecosystem. The answer would be a consistent flow of capital to back early-stage founders. Below I will build my case for B1G Ten Ventures.
Capital
In my mind, the way B1G Ten Ventures would be funded is through each school in the B1G Ten using a small part of their endowment to put towards the fund. Collectively the schools that make up the B1G Ten universities have over $70B under management. I would propose that the universities agree on a raw number that each university donates to the fund. This would make it so it’s an even capital allocation amount between the universities since the value of their endowments varies.
Structure
Since each school would be putting in their money they would be the limited partners on the fund. The fund would hire a managing director and a couple of partners that would be the liaisons between the universities as well as running a scout program that would be represented at each university to have ears on the ground at each school for new potential investments. This would not only help with the deal flow but give each campus exposure to venture capital at the early stage.
Talent
With each of the universities being major research institutions. The amount of talent would not only be coming from the students and alums when it comes to building and operating companies but the research labs as well. There could be an opportunity to commercialize a breakthrough that one of the colleges is working on and then staff a team of people to then build a company around it. I would also envision the fund partnering with Venture For America which is a company that places recent college grads at startups outside of the typical tech hubs. We could use VFA to hire for our portfolio companies so we have another stream for talent.
Opportunity
The opportunity here is to not only capitalize on the synergies that the universities already share between each other whether it be through athletics or the Association Of Big Ten Students. It’s an opportunity for the universities to not only educate the founders, operators, and investors of tomorrow but to also invest in them. In an age where the next generation will have to be more entrepreneurial than the last, partnering together to invest in that future should be of utmost importance. With a lot of the capital still being sent to the coasts, it is time for universities to use their brands and capital to invest in a place that is often overlooked in the tech ecosystem conversation.
To all of the Spartans, Wolverines, Fighting Illi, Hoosiers, Hawks, Terps, Badgers, Cornhuskers, Wildcats, Buckeyes, Lions, Boilermakers, Gophers,Scarlet Knights, Trojans, Bruins, Ducks & Huskies. Let’s band together to create a more robust, diverse and equitable tech ecosystem for the Midwest & The West.
