Variety Innovation Venture | 4,951 followers on LinkedIn. Robotics and Automation | VARIETY INNOVATION VENTURE PRIVATE LIMITED is a Delhi based Research &amp; Development and Industrial Automation Company. We bring most dimensions of innovation together to work in new ways, enter new categories ...

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The phone interview started with the founder explaining the format, followed by the standard “tell me about yourself.” Before the interview, I had done research to know he wasn’t yet 30. It seemed to be his first startup and publicly available information about this venture was minimal. I was excited that I got the phone interview because I knew my previous marketing experience was a perfect fit. I kept my story short by including only relevant startup marketing projects. “You remind me of my mom,” he replied when I finished. Awkward silence. “Tell me about her,” I politely clucked in a high pitch, then swallowed hard, filled with anxiety about what was next. Although he spoke with appreciation of his mother, she had never been hired by his startup. Nor was I, for that matter. And I wondered what about me, besides my age, made him compare me to his mom. I wasn’t yet 40, had no kids (or pets) and was living my best life. None of which should have mattered for the interview but somehow it did. In all fairness, maybe he really was actively seeking candidates to create a startup family vibe. Or it could have been the wrinkled elephant in the room — ageism. real Ageism In Tech It’s an open secret in Silicon Valley that the tech industry suffers from — “the stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination against people on the basis of their age.” In , it’s been shown that tech companies hire on the young side. And, by the , tech workers already start to feel the effects of ageism. ageism a recent survey age of 29 Never in a million years would I have thought that I would be compared to a potential boss’s mother. But since my first job at a startup, I wondered why there weren’t more older workers. It took me four months to get that $10/hr., entry-level marketing job when I first moved to the Bay Area at the ripe old age of 28. I had my masters from a top-tier university and a few years working in consulting which amounted to me not only being one of the oldest, but also one with more professional experience than most. It is worth mentioning that absent from many of the popular diversity talks and trainings is the topic of age discrimination. are on average 31 years old while the average American worker is 42. At Google, for example, 30 is the average employee age. In Atlassian’s Balanced Team Diversity Assessment, the sample data is limited to . Tech workers engineers ages 25-34 The almost-obligatory activities at tech companies geared towards promoting bonding, like , aren’t exactly family-friendly or age-inclusive. The “lack of culture fit” label given to those that aren’t exactly like you, is a handy vehicle for discrimination. It’s based solely on a subjective perception of whether you pattern-match to the existing (youth-biased) company culture. karaoke and overnights At times being the oldest in the room can be uncomfortable, like recently, when a woman point blank asked me in a professional environment, “are you in your 20’s?” It was another periodic reminder that no matter what age you are or appear to be, perpetuating age differences is a real distraction from actual work. I answered honestly, confronting the bias by giving my true age of 40 and mentally moved on. Future Reality While the Hollywood-made-famous movie with Robert DeNiro as a 70-year old intern probably will never have a sequel with a colleague like Meryl Streep (or happen in real life at a tech company, for that matter), none of us are getting any younger. The widely-publicized, recent reports of men in Silicon Valley getting cosmetic procedures are a subtle clue that demonstrates this. The Intern No doubt ageism in tech is complex. But as the career honeymoon has ended for many of us, with millennials close to 40 and many Gen X’ers now over 50, it’s a good time to step up to learn new skills, volunteer, become visible as a mentor and bridge your network’s age gaps with active networking. What’s more is that by 2034 it’s estimated that there will be more older adults than kids, . Coupled with the fact that people are living and working longer than previous generations there’s a strong potential for new opportunities to evolve. With programming languages also living longer than expected, as in the case of New Jersey’s from COBOL coders (a decades old language), it may be that there’s honest work for tech elders yet. according to Census.gov recent call for help It is clear our future depends on innovation. And, the most innovative enterprises are the most diverse. This has been proven in HBR’s where six diversity factors (including age) were measured with innovation outcomes in a variety of countries. It is noted from the study that the “power of diversity still needs to be unlocked with enabling practices, like a non-hostile work environment, an inclusive culture, and a culture where diverse ideas resulting from a diversity of backgrounds are free to compete.” recent study Building such a culture of innovation starts with overcoming biases and rethinking hiring strategies. By focusing at every level, from the investor to the recruiter, on creating inclusivity where diverse skills over other factors matter most is what diversity is about. In addition, blind skills assessments and interviewing offer new ways to eliminate age bias. Employers who have already been recognized for hiring successfully and building inclusive cultures are part of the “ ” list. Best Employers to Work for Over 50 Finally, showing up as a true professional in any field requires a dedication to education and personal development. My mother, a retired computer programmer with a career that spanned from the 60’s to the 90’s, successfully faced sexism and ageism. A key lesson she taught me was that the more you make of an opportunity the more success you will have. It’s getting access to the right opportunity with people that respect you and share your values that is most important. Previously published at https://candor.co/tech-careers/on-being-the-oldest-in-the-room References https://candor.co/interview-prep/surviving-the-tmay-question-a-k-a-stop-being-thirsty

Ageism in Tech: How It Feels To Be The Oldest in the Room

This post is part of the Hacker Noon Shareholder Series , where we interview some of the super-investors who made the site you're on right now possible. George Georgallides is the co-founder of Darwin: an AI-enabled platform that uses machine learning models and aggregates corresponding expert evaluations to assess the overall risk and attractiveness of a startups for both investors and founders. We sat down with Georgallides to learn more about this fascinating application of AI and machine learning. Q1 How exactly does Darwin use A.I. and the wisdom of experts to make financing an innovation less risky and more transparent for both entrepreneurs and investors? Our team spent two years researching the process of making investment decisions at the earliest stage, initially examining groups of experts making those decisions - the status quo - and later various machine learning approaches. What emerged was the combination of experts and AI in a collaborative process on what each does best. Machine learning is great at processing vast amounts of complex data. Experts among other things are great at making intuitive decisions or interpreting data creatively. We call that Hybrid Intelligence. Darwin uses machine learning models and aggregates corresponding expert evaluations to assess the overall risk and attractiveness of a startup. Darwin also actively learns from the evaluations and creates digital twins of each expert to scale the decision-making process further. "For investors, Hybrid Intelligence provides both a de-risking and scalability partner." When using Darwin, founders receive feedback on the overall attractiveness of their idea before going to an investor. The process is dynamic - they can test how changes impact their score as much as they want. In addition, they receive feedback on how to improve and, ultimately, the means to accelerate their funding. For investors, Hybrid Intelligence provides both a de-risking and scalability partner. Darwin enhances investors’ due diligence stack and allows them to evaluate more deal flow in a timely and knowledgeable manner. Q2 Much has been written about just how far AI can go in terms of performing complex decision-making tasks. Darwin is advocating for Hybrid Intelligence as the new frontier for collaboration between humans and AI - can you tell us more about Darwin's application/s of that? The applications for Hybrid Intelligence can certainly go far beyond just the early stage innovation environment and really apply to any complex decision-making tasks where uncertainty is high. Medical imaging, sports predictions and movie production are just some examples. Beyond better decision-making though, we also believe that Hybrid Intelligence is a piece of the puzzle in shaping the future of work. One where A.I is not replacing humans but is integrated with humans. For tasks that human intuition is critical, we can now scale it and digitize it. More importantly, for the first time, through the use of our digital twin technology, humans can monetize their intelligence in a way in which they don't have to actively do the work. They can ‘outsource’ their intelligence and monetize it passively. Overall, we believe that Hybrid Intelligence has the potential to help align AI and human goals. Q3 How is building an AI investment platform different from building other VC companies? There are some similarities in that, VC funds source deals and conduct due diligence in order to find profitable investment opportunities. But the similarities end there. First of all, Darwin doesn’t invest in startups itself. Rather, Darwin is an intelligence partner representing the interests of both founders and investors. Building Darwin involved years of research and data gathering from founders, accelerators, investors and other stakeholders followed by technical execution and ongoing development to build a scalable solution for identifying successful investment opportunities. Second, unlike VCs, Darwin places a big emphasis on helping founders develop their ideas and make them investable whereas VCs mostly work with startups ready to receive funding. Third, Darwin can scale its core competency whereas a VC fund is inherently limited by how many people work directly or indirectly at the fund. Darwin can help remove that bottleneck for VCs. There are certainly many other ways that Darwin, being a platform, differs from a VC, which is a service company. But the important thing to note, as I mentioned, is that Darwin is a complement to the VC process. Q4 has developed a Digital Disruption Design (D3) model that helps corporations, investors and entrepreneurs with concrete strategic decision-making and data-driven decisions - walk us through that framework, and how it’s integrated into Darwin’s process? Darwin We developed the Digital Disruption Design (D3) model with the support of business incubators, accelerators, VCs and corporate innovation arms. We built on the idea of the Lean Startup for iterative development, testing, and learning in order to provide a process that helps entrepreneurs make decisions. The model has been tested in collaboration with the University of St. Gallen with over 200 participating digital ventures. D3 guides innovators through the use of data-driven methods for validating their assumptions and build their ideas. It’s a stage gate process with decision points at the end of each stage. Each stage is an iterative process of making decisions, testing hypothesis, validating assumptions, and learning. It also provides a set of decision possibilities for each dimension and metrics for making the progress measurable. This framework is integrated into the Darwin platform. The D3 model can be applied for a variety of stakeholders, including startups developing their ideas or corporate venturers trying to define innovation pathways. In addition, we believe it can help incubators, accelerators, and investors monitor their portfolio’s progress. Q5 The VC market is still fairly non-inclusive, in terms of who can actively participate. How might Darwin aid in democratizing opportunities on both sides of the fence - for both investors and entrepreneurs? We’ve met with hundreds of investors and entrepreneurs across the world in the past two years. What we’ve learned is that there’s an incredible opportunity to make cross-border and cross-cultural connections for all parties involved. There are many opportunities to leverage hybrid intelligence to integrate otherwise timid early stage investors by equipping them with more confidence on what represents a good investment opportunity by connecting the dots. In addition, there’s a big opportunity to present highly qualified deals from under-represented areas of the US and the world to investors who otherwise would not be exposed to those deals - thereby making the access to “smart money” more widespread. Q5 For entrepreneurs interested in joining Darwin’s innovation platform, what can they expect in terms of investment opportunities, users/customers, mentorship? We want to work with founders as early as idea-stage and help them cultivate their startup all the way through fundraising. First and foremost, we want to help them get feedback on whether their product has product-market fit. We’ve seen too many founders spend months fundraising with no success before they’ve validated if they provide enough value in their market. On Darwin, they can get feedback from investors and other industry experts on their business model, team-solution fit, traction and much more. Darwin also wants to help startups improve their chances of fundraising by providing opportunities to create traction. One way we are doing that is by matching startups with corporations who are willing to be a startup’s first paying customer. In addition, we’re focused on providing value to the startups through a growing network of partner offers. Something really exciting that we are working on bringing to founders very soon, is the ability to get feedback from the digital twin of the investor they want to pitch and adapt the product to make a killer pitch before the real meeting. Overall, Darwin wants to make fundraising and more transparent for founders and help them go to market the right way. Q6 What are the key actions early-stage startup founders should focus on to reduce their risk of failure? Product-market fit and execution top the list in a fairly wide spectrum of variables that can impact early stage success or failure. The biggest challenge we’ve heard, from first-time founders especially, is not knowing how to go about validating their idea and what to focus on with regards to early execution in order to make their venture more attractive to investors and potential users/customers. That’s why we think Darwin fills such a big piece of that puzzle in providing an on-demand tool to get support on both those key areas. Q7 What’s a ‘digital twin’, and how does Darwin use this to help startups succeed in pitching? A digital twin is a digital copy of a user on Darwin. Our machine learning models actively learn from the input of Darwin experts. That means we can employ the knowledge of experts even without their physical input to increase the confidence in the evaluation of a particular idea. Our digital twin feature is still in development as we gather data from those users but when it’s ready to launch, will include VCs, successful entrepreneurs, and other specialists. Q8 For VCs looking for investable startups, what’s to be gained from joining Darwin as an investor? Almost every VC that identifies herself as such will have more deal flow than they can evaluate at present. What we offer is a scalable way to vet not only that deal flow, but also additional opportunities originating from our partners around the world with less time spent on due diligence. This way, VCs are less likely to miss out on an investment opportunity because they “didn’t have enough time”. Furthermore, due to the fact that opportunities on Darwin are evaluated by a diverse brain trust of industry experts and then further evaluated by our AI, VCs can use Darwin to de-risk their own investment decisions. This ensures that they don’t miss out on deals because of cognitive biases or limited knowledge on an opportunity’s addressable market, and at the same time not make bad investments due to overconfidence. "The early stage investment space is such a foundational driver in shaping the future of our world... Darwin is trying to organize the vast number of incredible innovation opportunities that exist, help shape them through the platform and present them to investors who can help place them in the market." Using Darwin’s digital twin technology, VCs can also optimize what opportunities they see based on their investment preferences and only see deals that are pre-qualified for them to invest in. This allows for faster and more confident investment decisions. Lastly, Darwin offers several upgrades to the VC tech stack to help VCs better manage their data internally, better manage their relationship with startups and their industry reputation in general. Q8 What’s your take on impact investing - is this a trend Darwin subscribes to when making decisions about who to partner with? The early stage investment space is such a foundational driver in shaping the future of our world. Companies who were born less than a decade ago are transforming transportation, housing, work, energy and so much more. Darwin is trying to organize the vast number of incredible innovation opportunities that exist, help shape them through the platform and present them to investors who can help place them in the market. In that spirit, we invite founders, investors, accelerators and other key stakeholders from the impact investing community to partner with Darwin in making capital allocation in impactful innovations more efficient. Not only investors and founders can join Darwin. Accelerators, experts and startup scouts are all encouraged to apply on their site . Learn more at askdarwin.com ; and check out more of the Hacker Noon Shareholder Series .

Darwin's Hybrid Intelligence to Align AI & Human Goals for Startups & VCs

What Startup Entrepreneur With A Non-Tech Background Should Know About Android

The founders of AnavClouds Software are both Salesforce professionals, doing well in their own spheres of work. They happened to meet through a common friend of theirs and started working together for some time. As the volumes grew they decided over a cup of steaming coffee that it was the right time to start a venture of their own, in 2016. Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship. The act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth. Peter Drucker How was the concept started? That is entrepreneurship in a nutshell, in the words of the famous Marketing Consultant and Author.  The founders, Gaurav and Anil had the objective of creating wealth. Their skills were complementary to each other. They just needed the resources and the right innovative mindset for a successful business of their own. Gaurav Kumar Singh, the founder and CEO of AnavClouds is more of a marketing person who has seven years of experience as a Salesforce Consultant and Evangelist and holds a Masters degree in Animation and VFX from a leading Canadian University. He is passionate about technology, business, innovations and the latest advancements happening around the world. Anil Vaishnav, the co-founder & CTO is the technical expert,  a 4X certified Salesforce Solution architect. Anil has a decade of experience in Salesforce Sales and Service Cloud and even worked with established Salesforce companies, in the role of Solution Architect. Blessed with strong analytical, problem-solving and organizational capabilities, Anil efficiently manages multiple Salesforce projects simultaneously, which includes handling a variety of configuration, development, customization, integration and implementation tasks. He has several certifications and accomplishments to his name.He holds a Masters of Science degree with specialization in Information Technology. How was the first few Years? AnavCloud works in Salesforce development, implementation and support services. Their clients are all based outside India. In the first year  AnavCloud earned a revenue of $ 200,000. However, now they are on a path of steady growth and last year achieved an annual revenue of $1.5 million. Awards or achievements : Salesforce Consulting Partner Nominated in “India 500 Startup Companies” Listed in Top Salesforce Consulting Companies in India By Goodfirms and Clutch B2B What Lessons did they learn? Entrepreneurship amounts to failure and success. These two budding entrepreneurs learned to cope with their failures well, as their venture grew. They focus quite a lot on acquiring knowledge - fast. In times of Covid-19, they have still managed to grow at a reasonable pace- navigating in uncharted waters well during a unique pandemic. Why AnavClouds is a Preferred Destination for Novice and Experienced Developers? They have hired a talented workforce of Salesforce professionals. The organization is employee-centric and knowledge-oriented. The core management does not believe in providing any stress-inducing conditions for their employees, Now, in the time of Covid-19, most of their employees are working from home. They inspire the team to tread on the path of continuous learning. Acquiring knowledge is the mantra shared by this organization and no doubt the employees, even the novice developers feel extremely satisfied to work with AnavClouds. Future Plans Yes, they dream to maintain their pace of growth among the other . They want to grow at a rapid pace, doubling their resources and have grand plans of opening an office at Gurgaon, in the near future - scaling up and growing. Salesforce Consulting partners Recently, for the past year or so, AnavClouds has entered the Digital Landscape. They want to reach out to their target audiences, in different markets, across geographies - over the various platforms. They have a concrete road map for a digital footprint for their company and will foray into strategic digital marketing. Message for the Young Turks The founders never want their workforce to take the stress and work in a relaxed way. They always encourage task completions by their team. They ask the developers to take the series of Salesforce certification exams for development, for a better future for themselves and the organization.

Interview with AnavClouds Founders: How To Build a Million Dollar Company

237 Stories To Learn About Innovation

The introduction of blockchain technology has opened up doors for crypto game creators, allowing them to create virtual economies where players can earn real money for their time. Crypto gamers can engage with the Play-to-Earn (P2E) economy to earn in-game tokens or non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that can be stored in the player's wallet. On many cryptocurrency exchanges, it is possible for players to trade in-game digital tokens for cryptocurrency. These digital assets may be put up for sale or exchanged on various online platforms, or they may be immediately converted into conventional cash. On the other hand, traditional games work in a centralized manner due to their design. Typically, the assets utilized inside the game are locked to the game and cannot be used for anything else. The impact of this is rather straightforward: players cannot utilize in-game assets outside the context of the game. For example, you cannot use a CS:GO skin in a Battlefield game. While in-game assets such as skins can be sold to other players, this is usually done either on the black market or through centralized marketplaces. Players cannot freely exchange in-game assets they may earn in a traditional game. Blockchain games bring a much-needed change to this system, enabling players to earn in-game assets that can be traded for other assets or even exchanged for real money. Every player has a wallet that enables them to store blockchain-based game assets that they earn, with some assets being usable in more than one game. These virtual assets have value in the physical world, making playing blockchain games much more compelling. In addition, when designed correctly, crypto games offer gameplay that is completely engaging with a well-constructed in-game economy. Everyrealm launches a home building game on Roblox and an NFT adventure game on The Sandbox has worked with Hometopia to develop a Roblox house design game. Hometopia, dubbed the metaverse's "game for grownups," would let players collaborate with their pals to design their perfect houses and communities. Everyrealm Everyrealm is a metaverse real estate firm that creates virtual buildings in immersive 3D environments. Some of the most prominent web3 venture capital firms, including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), sponsored the company's $60 million round in February. Coinbase, the Weeknd, actor Will Smith, and US artist Nas are other noteworthy sponsors. In addition, the adventure game Fantasy Islands, created by web3 powerhouse Everyrealm, has made its metaverse premiere. The Sandbox, a virtual place where large companies and casual customers have been mixing and constructing, is the backdrop for Fantasy Islands' first major release. Unlike conventional video games, which must be bought and downloaded to be played, metaverse games are integrated into the virtual environment in which they are situated, enabling players to enter them as they travel. Fantasy Islands, although not a full-fledged game, has enough to keep players amused as they explore its 100 islands and complete tasks along the way. Frostbite Villa is the location for the Fantasy Islands game, which can be located inside The Sandbox at coordinates -3, 5. As they explore the estate, gamers will come across prompts and clues that will require them to complete seven tasks. So far, it seems that The Sandbox regulars who have played it have liked it. Everyrealm intends for Fantasy Islands to be much more than a multi-level adventure. The plan is for residents of the 100 islands to build their own elegant apartments and beachside villas where they can hang out and flaunt the NFTs that decorate their real estate. The Fantasy Islands collection includes a variety of NFTs that may be utilized to fully enjoy the metaverse game. The FI100 cards, which allow VIP access to the game's 100 islands and have a current floor price of 19 ETH, are the best of the lot. In addition, each NFT has its characteristics, such as a bar, unique grid coordinates, and gadgets and animals. Fantasy Islands is the place to be if you've ever wanted to hang out with a giraffe. Then there's the Fantasy Islands line of manufacturer clothing and yachts, along with the inevitable superyacht. The metaverse is still in its early stages, with the quality and variety of entertainment continually increasing. This is by no means the final shape of the metaverse game for Fantasy Islands. However, based on the first impressions, there's much to like. The Metaverse The metaverse is another section of the blockchain gaming community that aims to bring more innovation into the space. Explained simply, the metaverse is the vision of a collection of virtual worlds where players can come together to work, learn, and play. One of the main strengths of the metaverse is that it is not limited to only gaming. Corporations can use the metaverse to hold virtual meetings and enable employees to work in a virtual environment. The corporate metaverse aims to give organizations complete authority over their virtual worlds and the events inside them. Businesses can build virtual places that match their company ethos and culture, where employees, directors, and founders can work online. For example, if you run a startup, you can build a virtual space for presentations where prospective investors can view and interact with your business ideas. If you're running an eCommerce startup, you can even create a virtual store where customers can view and buy your products. Both digital and physical products can be placed for sale in a virtual space, with digital items being downloaded instantly while physical products are sent out for delivery upon purchase. Outlook for the Crypto Gaming Industry The blockchain gaming sector is quickly becoming a major industry in the crypto space. As a result, new crypto games are producing very immersive experiences, with AAA-style graphics and even big-name game producers coming into the market. Only time will tell whether blockchain gaming will be able to reach the same heights as traditional gaming. However, with growing interest from mainstream game studios and the increasing quality of crypto games, there is a lot of potential for growth. Due to these factors, it is possible that we could see an evolution in the crypto gaming and P2E sector, with new innovations and ideas coming into the fold. The more gaming projects that come into the space, the more competition there is; this increased competition will drive innovation further.

Blockchain and Metaverse Games Are Bringing Well-needed Innovation to the Gaming Sector

Before we joined the investment team at CRV, we were undergrads at Stanford interested in helping student companies launch and scale. In 2015, we founded , which has since become Stanford’s premier on-campus incubator. We graduated in 2016, but the program is still running under a new student team. Cardinal Ventures Every year, Cardinal Ventures graduates two classes of 15–20 companies each, with founders spanning a variety of undergrad and graduate programs. There are now more than 100 Cardinal Ventures alumni companies, many of which have raised venture funding or graduated other accelerator programs — including , , , , and . Athelas Nova Credit OhMyGreen Pair Eyewear Knowhere We’ve been excited to see students nationwide launching similar programs, and have received many requests to share the framework used to create Cardinal Ventures! This article is a direct response to those requests. Cardinal Ventures is still a work in progress, but we learned a lot from our experiences (and many mistakes!) and hope our journey is helpful. Need-Finding & Structuring the Program We started Cardinal Ventures to fill a need in Stanford’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. We wanted to fit between the classes & clubs that help students form an idea, and the incubators & early stage investors who fund and support full-time entrepreneurs. When we spoke to student entrepreneurs, many of them felt that they didn’t have adequate resources for this “in-between” stage — especially since incubators and investors were looking for a business model and traction that was hard to develop as a student founder. A few examples of the resources available to Stanford students at various stages of company-building. For student entrepreneurs, making the transition from the “idea” phase to working on their company full-time isn’t easy. We created Cardinal Ventures to give students more time and resources before making this decision. Some of our founders had done more work on their companies than others, which informed their goal-setting while in Cardinal Ventures — some startups focused on just building an initial prototype, while others actually signed customer contracts. However, almost all were in the post-idea, pre-full commitment phase. Many of our founders wanted to further validate their idea before they decided to drop out or commit full-time after graduating. The Cardinal Ventures model won’t work everywhere, as it relies on having a large pool of motivated student entrepreneurs who have done some work to develop their ideas. We’ve seen awesome college programs focused on helping at the earlier stages with need-finding, or helping at the later stages with funding. If you’re interested in starting a program, we’d recommend landscaping what’s already available on campus and talking to student and alumni entrepreneurs to get their perspectives. From our conversations with Stanford founders, we came up with a list of key resources that we wanted Cardinal Ventures to provide: (1) a small grant to get companies going; (2) mentorship and advice from expert investors and operators; (3) a supportive community of like-minded student entrepreneurs; and (4) access to further funding and investor connections. To accomplish these goals, we designed Cardinal Ventures as a ten-week program with the following structure: Once or twice-weekly speaker sessions and workshops Matching with three mentors, who meet with their teams 2–3x Social events and mid-quarter check-ins with teams Final demo day to investors, press, and broader Stanford community $1k (now $5k) equity-free grant, as well as free or discounted startup resources from Amazon, Google, Wilmer Hale, SVB, and others Student entrepreneurs pitching at a recent Cardinal Ventures demo day. Finding Resources & Running a Pilot Host Organization The first step is to find an organization that can support your program with space and (potentially) early funding. We were already working as the CIO’s of Stanford’s student government (ASSU), which operates as an independent non-profit and has a ~$20M endowment and offices on campus. After developing a business plan and presenting to the ASSU Board, we got a budget to run a Cardinal Ventures pilot with six startups in spring 2015. We’ve also seen entrepreneurship programs run successfully within university departments or as student groups. We’d recommend trying to find $5k-$10k to run a pilot, depending on how many companies are in the cohort — you’ll likely want to offer some resources to them, and will need a few thousand dollars for events. It’s also key to have at least one room that you can use a few nights a week for meetings, speaker sessions, and other events. We’ll talk more about finding financial and resource sponsors later in this article! Curriculum It was very important to us that the true “instructors” of Cardinal Ventures were the speakers, mentors, and other experts that volunteered their time — not us! However, as directors of the program, we needed to create a curriculum around our programming that would lead teams towards the pitch day, and decided to focus on a different topic each week. Below is our curriculum from spring 2016. We also recommended relevant articles and videos to the topic of focus each week, which we mostly pulled from entrepreneurship class syllabi. We decided early on that each of our speaker sessions and panels would be open to Cardinal Ventures cohort members only, as we wanted to create a safe and interactive environment for both the speakers and the student teams. It also made Cardinal Ventures more attractive as a provider of exclusive resources and access to experts. An early version of our schedule of speakers and events for spring 2016. In our first few Cardinal Ventures sessions, we required teams to have a business plan by the end of the program. We soon realized this was difficult to accomplish in a ten-week period, and isn’t necessary to raise funding in the current environment. We therefore focused on having a pitch deck for each team by the time of demo day. Another early change we made was to turn most speaker events into panels — it was easier for the speakers to prepare, and we found it encouraged more lively and interesting conversations. People Our speakers, mentors, and event attendees provided the core value of the Cardinal Ventures experience, and we were very focused on building a top-tier community. We were lucky that Stanford has a large base of local alums who were excited to work with student entrepreneurs, and focused on creating a positive experience that made them want to continue participating. Here’s what we looked for and provided to our key stakeholders — though many of them generously volunteered their time just to be helpful to students! Speakers One hour time commitment to come speak with the Cardinal Ventures cohort. Many of them generously stayed for 30 minutes or an hour afterward to answer student questions. Ask: Investors gained visibility to student founders and the ability to engage with teams before pitch day. Operators got visibility for their company, which helped them recruit for intern/full-time roles from our founder cohort or their friends. Value: Our outreach strategy to speakers and mentors changed pretty significantly as the program developed. Once we had a website up-and-running as well as some press to link to, we tried to keep emails short and sweet so the reader could understand the ask quickly and do more research on the program if they were interested. Mentors Three to five hour time commitment that involved meeting with one Cardinal Ventures team two or three times over the course of the program. Ask: We developed a process for mentors to meet with teams and rank who they were most excited to work with, which we hope was valuable. We had several investor mentors invest in their CV mentee post-program! Value: Event & Pitch Day Attendees : Come to the Stanford campus for three hours to watch our companies give 5-minute pitches, and network with them afterwards. Ask Opportunity to learn about and potentially invest in promising early-stage Stanford companies. We also made sure to cater the pitch day with great food and drinks! Value: Student-run programs can have a reputation for being unorganized or poorly run. We wanted Cardinal Ventures to build up a great brand as quickly as possible, so focused on making every interaction with outside parties (speakers, mentors, event attendees) as professional as possible — especially when it came to scheduling! Speakers received an event confirmation the day before as well as instructions to the venue and a list of companies/teams that would be in attendance. They received a gift and a thank-you note afterwards. Mentors received an invite to a mixer at the beginning of the quarter, weekly updates from their mentee team on progress, and a survey from our Cardinal Ventures team mid-quarter and at the end of the quarter to gauge their satisfaction with the program. Startups Perhaps the most important component of the program — you need to recruit teams! For the first few sessions of Cardinal Ventures, a key component of our marketing to students was the quality of the speakers and mentors we had recruited. It’s important to schedule speakers early (months in advance) and ask permission to include their name or photo in emails or flyers. The flyer for our very first quarter of Cardinal Ventures! We featured a few of the VCs who had agreed to come speak with our teams. In our application, we asked for each team member’s name and resume, as well as a one to two page description of their business idea and any traction thus far. This application has become more complex over time, but we’d recommend you carefully tailor the questions to the stage of company you’re looking to recruit. The more you ask for, the less applications you’ll receive, but the companies that do apply will likely be a better fit. It’s important to structure application reviews to ensure the companies are fairly and consistently evaluated. We had a spreadsheet where each startup was ranked from 1–5 on criteria including idea, team, commitment, and fit for the program. A subset of these companies (usually double what we needed to fill the class) was brought in for a twenty-minute interview focused around specific questions or concerns that came up in the application. In certain cases, we asked experts to participate in interviews. These experts were typically PhD students or industry professionals who could validate the tech behind deep tech, hardware, or biotech/medical device projects. Building a Team For the pilot, which included only six startups, we essentially ran the program ourselves. Fair warning — it was a lot of work! We quickly found ourselves working 40 hours per week in addition to classes, and decided to bring on a bigger team for the next session (fall 2016) to help Cardinal Ventures scale. We can’t emphasize enough the importance of making excellent hires. The people you bring on will be responsible for representing your program to entrepreneurs, investors, press, and others in the community, and you want to make sure that they reflect your values and the culture you want to create. We were lucky to find the perfect first hire — , a graduate student at Stanford at the time (now at First Round Capital). She had previously interned for StartX, so she had experience managing the operations of an accelerator, and also had a connection to the entrepreneurial community at the Graduate School of Business through her fiancé ( ). Most importantly, she was the ideal cultural fit for the program and played a key role in helping us make decisions around what to focus on as we scaled. Courtney Buie hi, Spike! After bringing on Courtney for the second quarter of the program, we started making hires to manage specific tasks. We brought on one person to lead each of the following initiatives — speakers, mentors, sponsors, and external communications. To ensure that they fully understood the type of work they would be doing, each candidate was asked to attend at least two events and complete a short project related to the initiative he or she wanted to lead. The Cardinal Ventures team in early 2016. From left to right: Henry Magun, Olivia Moore, Courtney Buie, Justine Moore, Yael Lederman, Michael Gioia, Sherrie Wang, Albert Gianatan, and Ela Heussen. Though having new team members was a huge help, it also complicated our operations. When we were running the program together, we were always in-sync on our decisions and processes, so it seemed less necessary to rigorously document everything. As we were onboarding new team members, we realized the importance of saving everything in shared drives, outlining responsibilities, and setting up a system to track progress. At the time, we used Google Drive, but CRV portfolio company can do this better! Airtable Sponsors and Next Steps After running the pilot, we needed to think about how to make Cardinal Ventures financially self-sufficient. Many accelerators or incubators take equity, which generate cash when a company exits. This is tough in a student program for many reasons — most notably, we wanted to be founder-friendly, and it’s not fair for students to have to give up a stake in their idea so early. It would also be logistically tough for us to keep track of all of these investments, especially given naturally high levels of student turnover. After ruling out equity investments, we decided to reach out to potential sponsors who might be willing to pay or provide free services in exchange for access to our pool of talented student entrepreneurs. We found that the following types of sponsors were most interested in this type of program: Banks, accounting firms, and law firms are always looking to connect with early stage founders who are starting to establish infrastructure around their companies. For example, law firms can help these startups incorporate during the program and form relationships with the founders to serve their future legal needs (e.g. issuing equity to new employees, structuring investment documents, etc). Service providers. VCs are interested in connecting with student startups for multiple reasons, the most obvious being that it may lead to an investment. We expected that seed stage firms would be most interested in sponsoring the program, but found that later stage firms also wanted access to our teams for recruiting purposes (not every startup would be successful!) and to keep an eye on what’s happening on campuses. VC firms. We found that most large tech companies are willing to provide student startups with free access to their resources. For example, Amazon may give startups AWS credits, while Google could provide AdWords credits and Stripe may give free online bank accounts. Tech companies. Many corporations (e.g. automotive companies, CPG brands, financial services firms) have innovation teams tasked with staying updated on developments in their field and forming relationships with early stage companies for potential acquisitions. These teams often have large budgets to sponsor programs for startups and are eager to get access to talented students. Corporate innovation arms. Check out the prepared by the current Cardinal Ventures management team for examples on how to articulate the value of your program and what benefits you can offer to sponsors. sponsorship guide In exchange for either funding or services, our sponsors received early access to teams, were invited to sponsor-only events, and served as mentors or speakers throughout the program, among other benefits. We created a packet for potential sponsors that gave an overview of Cardinal Ventures and the various levels of sponsorship. The cost for each tier of sponsorship should depend on the funding you need to operate the program and standard sponsorship levels for your region — ask around if you aren’t sure! Conclusion We’re excited to see Cardinal Ventures continue — it’s amazing to watch founders graduate from the program and continue their journeys, whether that means pursuing their company or moving on to other adventures. Working on Cardinal Ventures was one of the most rewarding parts of our time at Stanford, and much of that is due to the relationships we formed with all of the amazing students who participated in the program. We’re so grateful for the many amazing speakers, mentors, and advisors who helped us shape Cardinal Ventures. We want to give a special shoutout to at August Capital for supporting and guiding us from day one, at the Stanford GSB for helping us shape the curriculum, and for providing invaluable feedback on the program structure. was also instrumental in helping us understand the venture landscape and get the program up and running, from strategizing about the long-term vision to hosting panels! David Hornik Shai Bernstein JJ Singh Konstantine Buhler Thanks for taking the time to read this! If you are a student interested in starting a similar program on your campus, please feel free to reach out at any time — we’re available via email at twins@crv.com or on Twitter . @venturetwins

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