All about venture capital camps

July 26th, 2008 1 Comment

I’ve written about bootstrapping before and I hope some of you found them useful. However, as much as I believe in it, I know that no one method will work well with every business. This article is for those who want to start something that may need considerable financial muscle to accomplish.

Having a great idea is one thing, but selling it is another. That’s why venture capital firm camps, or VC camps, offer summer programs that provide the push needed for college entrepreneurs to get their businesses up and running. Some VC camps even provide stipends, free office space, and the chance to work side-by-side with professional business builders. Being part of a VC firm also gives your relatively new business credibility either for a loan or even for contacts. So what do these firms get in return? In the event that your business does take off, they generate the returns as IPO or even trade sales. Sounds interesting? Here is a list of a few VC firms and their available programs.

1) Lightspeed Venture Partners – Lightspeed is an international venture capital firm with over $2 billion of committed capital under management and offers programs for several high-value sectors such as:

a. Cleantech
b. Communications
c. Digital Media and Wireless
d. Enterprise Automation
e. Enterprise Infrastructure
f. Internet Media and Commerce
g. Semiconductors

2) Highland Capital Partners – Highland invests in seed, early and growth stage companies in the communications, consumer services, digital media, healthcare and information technology markets. In order to keep track of the business, Highland serves on the Board of Directors of their portfolio companies 95% of the time.

3) Clearstone Venture Partners – Budding business on technology may find a place with Clearstone Venture Partners. They have over $650 million of committed capital for investment across the horizon of technology markets, including software, enterprise infrastructure, storage, communications, security, wireless, semiconductors, advanced optics and both consumer & business Internet.

4) Benchmark Capital – the venture capital firm responsible with the successful startup of eBay. Since 1995, Benchmark has invested in over 150 companies. They focus on early-stage investing and take a labor-intensive, service-oriented approach in markets where we have direct experience. These markets include

a. Enterprise software and services
b. Communications & security
c. Semiconductors
d. Mobile computing
e. Consumer services
f. Financial services

Investments to a company can range in size from as little as $100,000 to as much as $10 or $15 million. Unlike most venture partners that seem to have no limit on how many companies can partake, Benchmark sets a limit to set an unusually high partner-to-company ratio for greater focus.