Alumni Ventures Group Announces 20 Winners of Grant Program for Young Entrepreneurs

MANCHESTER, N.H., May 22, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Today, Alumni Ventures Group (AVG) announced the winners of its 10,000 Entrepreneurs (10KE) program, the firm's latest effort to spur entrepreneurship and broaden opportunities for more young people. In the inaugural year of the program, twenty students received a grant of $2,500 to supplement living expenses while working for an entrepreneurial company or pursuing their own startup.

Selected from a pool of 82 applicants across 39 different majors and 27 schools, the winners included:

•     Nine women, 11 men
•     Students from 11 schools: Stanford (6), Brown (2), Cornell (2), Northeastern (2), Boston University (1), Colorado (1), Michigan State (1), Northwestern (1), University of Pennsylvania (1), Princeton (1), Tufts (1), Washington University St. Louis (1).

Fourteen winners will apply the grant to pursue their own startup, while 6 will use it toward interning at another company. Students will be working across the United States, with the highest concentration in Boston, MA. AVG welcomed submissions from undergraduates who attend schools linked with the firm's alumni venture capital funds (e.g., Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, MIT, UC Berkeley, and others) and any other U.S. school. Applicants were chosen based on well-articulated goals, growth path, demonstrated initiative, and intellectual passion, among other things.

10KE, an independent organization that has filed for nonprofit status with the Internal Revenue Service, was founded by AVG CEO and 10KE Executive Director Mike Collins.

"I've been a serial entrepreneur a good deal of my life and founded a venture firm dedicated to investing in innovation," Collins says. "I'm firmly of the belief that the world needs more doers, makers, and entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, due to the costs of higher education, many students who are attracted to the entrepreneurial life often feel forced to take the route of high-paying, "safer" careers. 10KE enables them to sample the startup and venture worlds through the low-risk investment of a three-month internship."

The grant program builds on AVG's record of supporting higher levels of participation and greater diversity in entrepreneurship and venture capital. In 2014, AVG established a Venture Fellow Program designed to give young professionals and graduate students first-hand experience in VC, from networking to education to due diligence preparation.

Since its inception, more than 250 Fellows have participated in the 12-month curriculum. Currently, 75 percent of AVG Fellows come from underrepresented backgrounds (female, non-binary, or non-white), and roughly half of program graduates have transitioned to full-time work in the VC industry, either as investors or operators. Seventy percent of participants report that the program had a significant positive impact to their career (promotion, better new job, or entering into the venture industry).

ABOUT ALUMNI VENTURES GROUP
Alumni Ventures Group offers accredited investors a smart, simple way to invest in venture capital—a key asset class missing from the portfolios of many sophisticated professionals. Since launching its first venture fund in 2014, AVG's global referral and expert network has grown to 25 alumni and focused funds and 300,000 supporters. AVG is now one of the most active venture investors in the world, evaluating hundreds of opportunities every year and typically delivering fund investors a portfolio of 20-30 diversified deals. With offices in five locations and more school and specialty funds in development, AVG continues to expand and deliver on its core value proposition: offering a way for individuals to easily access venture assets. AVG funds are private, for-profit, and not affiliated with or sanctioned by any school.

ABOUT 10,000 ENTREPRENEURS
Alumni Ventures Group established 10,000 Entrepreneurs in 2019 to foster the development of a deeper entrepreneurial ecosystem. Its first program is the 10KE Internship Grant for undergraduates seeking supplemental funding for internships at startup or growth companies—or their own startup. 10KE is currently filing for nonprofit status. For more information, please visit: https://www.10kentrepreneurs.org/about/.

SOURCE Alumni Ventures Group