Organization:Dorm Room Fund

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Overview

Dorm Room Fund (DRF) is a student-run venture firm that invests in student-run companies. Launched in September 2012 they have since grown at an astounding rate. Backed by First Round Capital they provide average investments of $15,000 - $20,000 for student run start-ups. They're overall mission is to inspire and support more careers in the startup industry. Apart from funding DRF also offers their members discounts and partnerships with premier service providers, PR, mentorship from their incredible RAs, DRF events, and access to a national network of other amazing student entrepreneurs.  They currently have student groups based out of New York City, San Francisco Bay Area, Philadelphia, and Boston. 

Purpose

The main purpose of DRF is to help student founders take their ideas from their dorm room to the market while providing their members with an entrepreneurial education. Their main ways of achieving this are through investments and access to their huge support network and vast recourses. All the DRF investors are students so it really is a organization for students ran by students.  

Distinct Differences From Other Offerings

How It Is Run

What start-ups the DRF invests in is entirely decided upon by the student investors. This means that the investors can really relate to both what other students are trying to do and the problems they may encounter.  By using this approach to start up investment it gives the DRF a very different way of looking at start-ups compared to the traditional investment teams.   

Financing

They invest on a founder-friendly uncapped convertible note. What this means that an investor loans money to a startup, but instead of receiving their money back after a certain time period, the note converts into stock. However, if the startup is successful without raising additional capital or pursuing equity financing, the note may not convert and the startup can choose to simply repay the note plus a very nominal (around 2%) interest rate. At Dorm Room Fund they try very hard to operate as transparently as possible so that every aspect of their terms are clear and understood. Knowing that some companies won’t work out, they realize that a failed company is not the same as a failed entrepreneur. As long as everyone learned something, they view this money as tuition paid toward an entrepreneurial education – for everyone involved. So, if it turns out that your company does not explode into the next billion dollar business and instead fails, the Dorm Room Fund takes a loss and the founders DO NOT need to repay the money whatsoever.

The Support System

The most incredible thing about this program by far is the knowledge and experience that the RA support system gives to the student entrepreneurs. The 60 RA's have a combined 450 years of entrepreneurial experience and together have produced $2.7 Billion in exit revenue. This network gives students accepted into the program a huge advantage from the advice and recourses they receive. </div>

Impact Achieved For Students and Campus

Even though they are a fairly young program DRF has already funded 24 companies. The successful ones can all be viewed at DRFs portfolio page or in the gallery below. Their portfolio CEO's come from a variety of schools which include Upenn, Columbia, Stanford, UC Berkeley, NYU, Dartmouth, MIT, and Princeton. Another interesting part of DRF is many of there companies funded are in extremely different fields.

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Steps Required To Bring Resource to Campus

So far they mostly operate in the 5 cities listed above but they mention in their website that they do not completely rule out investing in companies outside of them. Since the are only one year old and already have spread to five cities I imagine they will soon spread to more especially if there is already an established entrepreneurship environment.

Contact Information

The best way to contact them is probably through their website [1]. They have a contact form and also a tab to submit a business idea to be accepted into their program. They also have a Facebook Page and a Twitter.