uSEED: Funding College Entrepreneurship

1. uSEED
Please visit www.UDseed.info for Beta platform being tested by the
University of Delaware

2. ResearchArts
uSeed supports Entrepreneurship
for every college student
Startups Causes

3. 2008
7,500 new startups each
year from the top 25
entrepreneurial schools alone
Princeton Review

4. 2010
5,000+ college courses
on entrepreneurship
Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

5. Today
2,000+ colleges nationwide
Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

7. Entrepreneurship ≠
Business Plan
The Problem

8. “Students in any major were
more likely to pursue
entrepreneurial activities if
they had been required to
develop solutions to
real-world problems.”
New York University 2008 Study
The Problem

9. To teach entrepreneurship
you must
fund student projects
The Problem

10. How do you fund them?
No experience
No customers
No assets
The Problem

11. CrowdFunding
The Solution

13. Competitors
Kickstarter - $10M

14. Competitors
Fundly - $2M

15. Competitors
profounder - $1M

16. uSEED
CrowdFunding through the
already established
University Alumni Networks
within university curricula
Our Differentiator and Competitive Advantage

17. Business Model
uSeed keeps 4% of every
donation as well as charges a
$5,000 annual licensing fee to
the Development Office of
participating universities

18. Our Team
Brian Sowards – UD Alum
A serial entrepreneur who left UD Honors Program to start his
5th company, Brian has worked with over 50 market leaders
providing technology solutions to business challenges.
Steve Roettger – UD Alum
A Finance and Management Information Systems graduate, Steve
pursued his entrepreneurial dreams after college, launching
several companies and attracting national attention through the
coIN Loft – Delaware’s first co-working space.
Matthew Racz– UD Alum
An Operations Management graduate, Matthew started his own
part-time business while at UD, runs a college entrepreneurship
video blog called Start It Up TV, and was a force behind the
development of the Entrepreneurship program at UD.

19. Wes Garnett – Del Tech Alum
An industrial engineer, Wes founded several companies and serves
as a mentor in UD’s Business Plan competition. He is co-founder of
the coIN Loft – Delaware’s nationally recognized co-working space.
Dan Freeman, Ph. D., University of Delaware
As Faculty Director of the Entrepreneurial Studies
Program, Professor Freeman has spearheaded several initiatives
to increase entrepreneurial activity among students campus-wide.
Our Team

20. • October 7
th
: Beta Launch at
University of Delaware – First Round
of 3 Projects
Projections and Milestones: Oct. 2011 – Feb. 2012
• November 7
th
: Second Round of 12
Projects at UD
• 2012 Spring Semester: UD Plus 2-3
More Universities Fully Utilizing uSeed

21. Contact
Matthew Racz
[email protected]
www.linkedin.com/in/mattracz
1-908-917-6181