Welcome
Posted by: Jared Hutchings 5/24/2008
Welcome to Peer. Peer is a new venture capital firm and the entire
team is excited about kicking things off and wanted to let you know
what we are all about. Mark Campbell and I have worked together the
last 5 years at University Venture Fund,
which I helped create in late 2000. Brennon Garrett (University
Director here at Peer) and Mark Campbell both joined as students
shortly thereafter (Mayank Mehta, University Director joined UVF in
2007). Mark traded in his backpack for briefcase and joined as a
partner in 2004. UVF brought venture capital education to university
students by letting them access live vc deals. We performed research
for a number of great firms, made investments with passionate
entrepreneurs and had a great time working together. So what better
way to celebrate something you enjoying doing by continuing to do it
and innovate on it?
So we decided to create Peer. There's a lot of buzz about venture capital changing, you can read about some of that buzz here and here. Most notably, it's taking less capital to
start companies than it did years ago. But some things of course, are
still the same, and one constant we believe is alive and well today is
that young people play an important part of the asset class. John Doerr echoed that sentiment recently (thanks Don and John).
So
what do we do exactly? We go to university campuses and get students
engaged in venture capital. At each of the campuses we give a group of
about 20 students the chance to research live deals and have a vote
on whether or not we invest. We also encourage them to find deals
among their peers and their university alumni network. If you are a
student interested in joining an exciting start up, joining a vc fund
or starting your own company then Peer is where you want to be. Right
now we are working with students at MIT, Berkeley, Stanford,
Wharton and some Utah students but we have more schools on the way
so still drop us a line if you're a student at a campus we left out.
Also, to be clear, anyone, (student or not) is eligible for funding as
an entrepreneur but
for now, students who work as associates at Peer are limited to the
schools I
mentioned.
We work closely with a small
group of VC funds as well. We consider them to be among the best VCs
out there, boldly searching out the new frontiers. For those firms, we
match up our student engine of research on deals or
markets they are serious about. We anticipate doing a number of deals
together as we are a big proponent of strong syndicates. We think it's
a healthy thing for the funds and entrepreneurs.
Finally we are thrilled about the team assembled at Peer. Aside from the those I've mentioned above (Brennon Garrett, Mayank Mehta, and Mark Campbell) we have a few others. Don Lucas, Ray Bingham
are two of the most impressive individuals I have met in the business
and am thrilled they have joined Peer. Included in that same sentiment
is our advisory board which includes Spencer P Eccles, Joel Peterson
and his venture group team, Larry Cook and Dan Peterson.
Fred
Wilson has been reading up on the history of venture capital. To me
the history of the industry is a fascinating one, so thanks Fred for
bringing some of the rich history to the surface. With that said, I'm
recycling a recent quotation he posted which captures a bit of what
we're doing here at Peer.
A
team made up of the younger generation, with courage and inventiveness,
together with older men of wisdom and experience, should bring success.
— General Georges Doriot, in the American Research and Development 1949
Annual Report. ARD was the first institutional venture capital firm.
