"“Our thesis is going against a bit of the grain, the rhetoric you hear in Silicon Valley that MBAs don't make good founders,” Gethers said, referring to the belief that an MBA prepares students for corporate culture, not the flexible, free-wheeling world of Silicon Valley."
"“To prove their thesis, Gethers and Haney went out and cold-called prospective limited partners and knocked on doors until they raised $2.5 million as a proof-of-concept fund to back 45 companies.”"
"“The two headed off to Harvard Business School in summer 2023 and about a year into it, decided to try and raise their first institutional fund. The funding environment was tough, but the pair ended up raising an oversubscribed $35 million fund from LPs, including publicly traded banks, family offices, and Fortune 500 executives, Gethers said.”"
Meridian Ventures was created by founders who shared deferred MBA experiences. Devon Gethers and Karlton Haney met through Harvard’s MBA deferred admission program in 2020 and began building a firm in 2023 to support founders with similar backgrounds. Gethers and Haney challenged the Silicon Valley view that MBAs do not produce strong founders by backing flexible, early-stage entrepreneurship. They raised a $2.5 million proof-of-concept fund by cold-calling and meeting prospective limited partners, funding 45 companies. After attending Harvard Business School in 2023, they raised an oversubscribed $35 million institutional fund from banks, family offices, and Fortune 500 executives. The fund targets U.S. enterprise technology startups at pre-seed and seed stages.
#venture-capital #pre-seed-and-seed-investing #enterprise-technology #deferred-mba #harvard-business-school
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