
For Students, By Students: First Round Capital Dorm Room Fund in Philly - pwingo
http://pandodaily.com/2012/09/24/for-students-by-students-first-round-capital-announces-dorm-room-fund-in-philly/
======
dshipper
As a Penn entrepreneur I couldn't be more excited for this. They opened up a
completely new office on our campus and in addition to the fund are offering
student entrepreneurs free office space. The way this has happened has
honestly been a dream come true. It sure beats getting kicked out of coffee
shops every few hours or trying to work in the library.

If I had to guess, I'd say that at least a few of my friends who dropped out
to go to the Valley or NY would probably still be at Penn if this had happened
a few years ago.

~~~
dcaranda
Agreed - as a Penn alumn, it's very exciting to see this kind of activity over
the past few years. I graduated in 2006 - at the time, interest in tech and
entrepreneurship was very far from the cultural norm on campus.

Some assets Penn has as the interest in tech expands:

\- Penn has had a professional focus for a long time because of Wharton - that
means access to all kinds of business, legal, capital resources. These
resources will serve this repositioning towards entrepreneurship very well.

\- West-Philly is dirt cheap. It doesn't get much cheaper in the United
States.

\- Philadelphia is culturally very rich. I mean this in a deeper sense than
the explicit things like museums and venues. Upon moving to New York after
graduation, I remember distinctly feeling like NY was more conservative
culturally. This goes hand in hand with the above point - making rent is
easier - allowing for all kinds of things. Namely, people took more risks and
were more eccentric.

------
tessr
"the University of Pennsylvania is quickly becoming the Stanford of the East"

Seems reasonable.

~~~
anuthera
I hope that one day Penn will be the university which will be compared to.

~~~
yefim323
Compared to what?

~~~
anuthera
I meant that I hope Penn could be considered a hotbed for entrepreneurship in
its own right and not just "Stanford of the East".

------
pixelcort
To be a VC doesn't one need to be an accredited investor? Or does that only
apply when using one's own assets to invest? In this case, it appears these
student investors would probably not meet accredited investor criteria, but it
may not matter since it's not their money they're investing in the first
place.

~~~
larrys
Specifically:

"Under the Securities Act of 1933, a company that offers or sells its
securities must register the securities with the SEC or find an exemption from
the registration requirements."

Edit: Emphasis and point of my statement "exemption" (see below)

<http://www.sec.gov/answers/accred.htm>

Offering securities is a whole different ballgame then becoming an investor,
say, in the pizza shop or web startup. As shown by "friends and family"
investing situations.

It depends on size.

<http://www.sec.gov/answers/regd.htm>

<http://www.sec.gov/answers/rule504.htm>

<http://www.sec.gov/answers/rule505.htm>

Etc.

------
patmcguire
I don't mean to demean your efforts, but the first thing that came to mind
when I read this was this: <http://whartoniteseekscodemonkey.tumblr.com/>

------
portman
Josh's original blog post announcing the fund:
<http://redeye.firstround.com/2012/09/the-dorm-room-fund.html>

------
hlovesm
In the sense of "entrepreneurial" spirit, perhaps. But in technical academics?
Far from it. That crown is still held by Berkeley/Stanford/MIT/CMU.
Entrepreneurship pretty much means essential technical abilities to succeed at
a startup. If I want to hire marketing/recruiters/managers, sure, Penn makes
the cut.

~~~
tessr
So, I used to go to Penn and now I go to one of the schools on that list. As
far as I can tell, Penn CS students are better prepared to start companies,
and probably as well prepared to be developers, as the students at my current
school. They are not as well prepared to, say, go get a PhD in CS unless they
go above and beyond the ordinary coursework.

But when the tech blogs talk about the "Stanford of the East" they're not
really talking about grad school preparedness anyways. Stanford is set apart
from the other schools on your list by its entrepreneurial spirit anyways.

------
srehnborg
Hope to see this expand to other campuses.

~~~
IceCreamYou
If it's successful, it absolutely will.

