Palo Alto-based Pejman Mar Ventures has just launched an inaugural $250K Startup Challenge to find and help grow the next big thing at UC Berkeley.
Applicants can apply online at http://berkeley.pejmanmar.com through a written application and short video introducing the team.
Applications are due by October 1st, 2015 and the winning team will be announced by October 30, 2015.
The winner, which must have at least one founding member who is a UC Berkeley student, faculty or recent alumni, will receive:
Funding
Pejman Mar Ventures will award $250K for 10% of the company via equity seed financing, and will designate part of their ownership as a gift to UC Berkeley.
Mentors
The chosen company will work with the Pejman Mar Ventures investment and operating team and will have access to the fund’s extended network and mentors.
Events
Founders will also have the opportunity to attend events, including fireside chats with iconic visionaries. Previous speakers include John Doerr, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; Mark Pincus, co-founder of Zynga; and Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo!.
Community
The chosen company will join the Pejman Mar Family and interact with other founders in the fund’s portfolio on a regular basis.
Optional Office Space
The chosen team has the option to work out of Pejman Mar Ventures hacker space downtown Palo Alto for up to 9 months, where they will have regular touch points with other Pejman Mar Ventures founders and partners. Although the use of the space is optional, it is always open to the team for use.
Led by Pejman Nozad and Mar Hershenson, Managing Partners, Pejman Mar Ventures is a $50M early stage fund which has seeded companies now collectively worth over $25B including Dropbox, Lending Club, Doordash, Danger, ZenPayroll, Guardant Health, Soundhound, etc.
In the past 18 months, the form has funded 7 companies in which the founders were either current students, or recent graduates, from schools including Stanford, MIT, Carnegie Mellon.
FinSMEs
06/07/2015