Introducing the College Ventures Network
A new home for student-led startup accelerators and the companies they serve.
When we launched Cardinal Ventures 2.0 over a year ago, we never expected this reaction. Dozens of students reached out from across the world to talk about the accelerators they were building at their universities or to ask for advice on how to get started. Clearly, the model was catching on.
But the landscape of opportunities for student ventures remains tilted. We’ve heard in countless conversations about the difficulty of getting VC exposure at non-target schools and in emerging ecosystems. Vast talent is being vastly overlooked.
These programs together incubate and accelerate hundreds of top students startups each year. In a world with truly democratized access to capital, how many more companies would we fund? How many more unicorns could we find?
Among the dozens of accelerators we’ve spoken to, this aspiration stands out, as does our common goal — to empower student founders with access to capital and support. That’s why, for the first time, we’re bringing these accelerators together. Introducing the College Ventures Network, the first global network of student-run startup accelerators!
We are joined by 17 student-led startup accelerators from the US, UK and Canada, including Acceler8 (Bath), Almaworks (Columbia), Almost Founders, Cal Hacks (Berkeley), Harvard Ventures (Harvard), IDEA (Northeastern), Innovation Dojo (Brown), Innovation Onboard (University of British Columbia), Kickstart, Rice Ventures (Rice), Launchpad@Stevens (Stevens Institute of Technology), Life Changing Labs (Cornell), LTF (UChicago), Project W (Babson, Olin, and Wellesley), Prospect Student Ventures (Princeton), OX1 (Oxford), and Warwick Incubator (Warwick).
These programs don’t only bring the incredible energy of their management teams, but dozens of the top student startups. In just over two weeks, we’d like to introduce you to some of them. That’s why we’re kicking off the College Ventures Network with an inaugural Demo Day. Join us on June 17th to meet the most promising student startups from 18 accelerators in 3 countries, and show the community what happens when the best student founders from anywhere get their shot.
College Ventures is a community first, and it will take all of us to make this work. We know how hard it is to build something that sticks — we’ve hit walls and changed paths plenty — but we also know how powerful a community can be. Thank you to all that have come on this journey so far. As we launch College Ventures, we hope you’ll join us.
