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Cardinal Ventures
Cardinal Ventures
2 A Letter from the Team3 Overview of Cardinal Ventures At a Glance Who, What, and Why With Your Help5 Program Details Education, Mentorship, Support6 Events Highlights Demo Day7 Community Sponsors, Partners, Advisors Stanford Student Enterprises Management Team9 Sponsorship Why Sponsor Us? Sponsor an Event Annual Sponsorships Thank you
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www.cardinalventures.org
Dear Prospective Sponsor,
Welcome to the Cardinal Ventures family!
Our community has made our first two years on campus an incredible success, and we would be thrilled for you to join us. As the only student-run accelerator on the Stanford campus, we are uniquely dedicated to preparing student-founders for successful entrepreneurial journeys. Cardinal Ventures provides mentorship, resources, a network, and strategic advice in a 10-week-long program built for Stanford student-founders.
Since Cardinal Ventures started in 2015, we have accelerated 68 companies and 160 founders in five cohorts. Alumni companies have gone on to raise capital from angels and notable venture capital firms and have been accepted into programs like Y Combinator, StartX, Summer@Highland, LSVP Summer Fellowship, and more.
We are proud of our success, which couldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible community of partners and sponsors. We strive to connect this community by bringing sponsors and founders together. This unique opportunity gives sponsors access to the best of Stanford’s entrepre-neurial ecosystem and helps you stay up to date on Stanford student innovation. We look for spon-sors that are hoping to create impact with our Cardinal Ventures founders.
We hope you consider joining our Cardinal Ventures family!
Best,The Cardinal Ventures Team
Yael Lederman Sherrie Wang Tina Jiang Nathan LeeManaging Director VP Mentorship VP External Relations VP Admissions
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WHAT WE DOCardinal Ventures is the premier non-profit startup accelerator on the Stanford campus run by students, for students. The pro-gram was created in spring 2015 by Justine and Olivia Moore as a proud division of Stanford Student Enterprises. We run two 10-week long programs of 13-19 teams every year with the goal of helping support student entrepreneurs at the earliest stage. By connecting founders to the greater Silicon Valley ecosys-tem, educating them on entrepreneurship and supporting them through their journey to create disruptive businesses at Stanford and beyond, Cardinal Ventures has grown into the home for student-founders.
companiesgraduated68 student
alumni160CV AT A GLANCE:
Teams continue to:1/3 undergradfounders
1/3 MBA
founders
1/3 other graduate
founders
Overview
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WHY WE DO ITWe are passionate about helping student-founders succeed in their entrepreneurial journeys. How do we know we’ve reached our goal? If we’ve empowered our founders by educating them and equipping them with the tools for entrepreneurial success. This metric means that we separate the people from their ideas. We put founders first, and focus on equipping teams with the skills they need to build their business. Our goal: to equip our founders with the skills they need to be successful entrepre-neurs, whether in their current venture or otherwise. In short, we accelerate people.
On average, about 1/3 of our teams are MBA students at the GSB, 1/3 are under-grads, and the final 1/3 are other gradu-ate students — PhD, Master’s, medical, law, and d.school students. Our founders are building consumer mobile, hardware, enterprise software, marketplace, medical devices/healthcare companies and more while innovating in diverse spaces such as fintech, biotech, enterprise tech, and edtech. Cardinal Ventures companies are typically early-stage — we accept teams building MVPs as well as teams with a growing user base and clients. They sell to consumers and businesses alike.
WHO WE ARE
WITH YOUR HELPCardinal Ventures is in a stage of high growth. As soon as the program launched in spring 2015, there was overwhelming interest from students and investors. After two years, we’ve learned and grown — we’ve more than doubled our application numbers, increased the quality and quantity of our services exponentially, and expanded our community of mentors, speakers, partners and supporters, all while accelerating 68 amazing start-ups.
Our goals are lofty and we will reach them with your help. Some highlights of our new initiatives are:• Quarterly and yearly programming for the general Stanford community • Summer @ Cardinal Ventures (summer ‘19)• Exclusive Cardinal Ventures alumni events• Exclusive Cardinal Ventures community events• Exclusive cohort events• Access to additional resources • + more
Our values: Founders first Community-driven Educational Supportive Dynamic Innovative
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Through curriculum carefully crafted by the Cardinal Ventures team, we invite the best speakers — entre-preneurs, investors, and industry experts — to work with our founders. Our ever-evolving weekly speaker series brings the community together in conversa-tion-style discussion to help founders tackle their most daunting challenges like go-to-market strategy, how to acquire customers, fundraising, and more. Our speak-ers use their vast experience and targeted expertise to impart our founders with valuable knowledge and lessons-learned, as well as inspire them with their suc-cesses, failures, and insights.
EDUCATE
MENTOROver 40 seasoned entrepreneurs, angel investors, and venture capitalists are active members of our growing mentor community. We pair teams and mentors based on industry, founder challenges, mentor expertise, and that je ne sais quoi that can only be discovered in person at our Mentor Mixer. Our founders meet with their mentors multiple times over the course of the program, giving them the opportunity to receive one-on-one feedback as they build their companies and form close connections with industry experts.
SUPPORTAs students, our founders have limited access to important resources that are otherwise too expensive. Our incredible resource partners give our teams access to AWS credits, legal office hours and documents, financial office hours, design services, and more. Our management team also works hard to support Cardinal Ventures founders by providing a small grant, help with recruiting, and access to an our exclusive internal database of contacts, educational materials, etc.
Clockwise from top left: Kevin Hartz, Rebecca Lynn, Mike Cassidy, Josh Stein
Clockwise from top left: Manthi Nguyen, Tripp Jones, Ann Wessing, Alan Chiu
Program Details
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Each Cardinal Ventures cohort culminates in Demo Day, where teams present to an audience of 200+ inves-tors and community members. This special day provides the stage for founders to present their progress and make an ask of the audience. While some teams use Demo Day to secure funding, others are looking for advi-sors, co-founders, advice, introductions, etc. Because Demo Day is a community event, alumni companies are also invited to present. Many alumni companies that are raising capital or launching new products have taken advantage of this opportunity.
Demo Day begins with a keynote address — in the past we have had speakers like Dick Costolo, John Lilly, Stanley Tang and Astro Teller. Following the address, each team is given four minutes to present, while a pan-el of judges compiles feedback. The event culminates in a mixer where investors are encouraged to visit the team booths and begin forming relationships.
Firms present include:
Events
DEMO DAY
• Orientation + Retreat• Mentor Mixer • Mid-session Presentations • Mid-session Mixer • Demo Day
HIGHLIGHTS
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CommunityWe owe our success to the incredible community that supports Cardinal Ventures and our founders relent-lessly. Our mentors, speakers, sponsors, partners, alumni founders and advisory board each contribute a vital piece to Cardinal Ventures’ ongoing achievement.
SPONSORS
PARTNERS
ADVISORS
David HornikAugust Capital
Adam PluemerDuo Group
Shai BernsteinStanford GSB
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Stanford Student Enterprises (SSE), the financial branch of the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU), was created in 1996 to establish the student government’s independence from the University. As an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, SSE’s leadership works closely with Stanford administrators but maintains an important element of autonomy in decision making. SSE ensures the long-term financial viability of the ASSU by man-aging the banking and funding process for Stanford’s 800+ student groups and also runs several business on campus, including the student store in Tressider Student Union, an advertising division for local businesses that want to advertise on campus, and the Cardi-nal Fund.
Cardinal Ventures is a division of SSE. Our program was founded in 2015 by then-SSE employees, Olivia and Justine Moore. Since our founding, Cardinal Ventures has worked closely with its umbrella organization to execute a valuable program for student founders.
Stanford Student Enterprises
Management TeamYael Lederman, Managing [email protected]
Yael is a junior at Stanford majoring in Biomechanical Engineering. She is passionate about the intersec-tion between biotechnology and entrepreneurship. This summer, Yael worked at 500 Startups in Tel Aviv as an Investment Intern. She enjoys the beach, writing, traveling and being outdoors. She has been on the Cardinal Ventures management team since fall 2015.
Sherrie Wang, VP of [email protected]
Sherrie is a third-year PhD student studying Computational and Mathematical Engineering, striving to do good with machine learning. Before coming to Stanford, she worked at Goldman Sachs as an analyst in the Corporate Risk Management group. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 2014, where she started a business to tutor and mentor high school students. She loves to hike, read, sail, and learn new things.
Tina Jiang, VP of External [email protected]
Tina is a sophomore at Stanford, studying Symbolic Systems with a concentration in Human Computer Interaction. This summer, Tina was a marketing intern at Casper, a startup aiming to disrupt the sleep industry. In the past, Tina has also been a fellow at Highland Capital Partners and and a marketing intern at Ringly, an Andreessen Horowitz-backed wearable tech startup.
Nathan Lee, VP of [email protected]
Nathan is a sophomore studying Symbolic Systems. He’s passionate about connecting people to the resources and opportunities they need to grow. In addition to Cardinal Ventures, Nathan is involved in BASES as an officer of the Social Impact team. This summer, he worked at TechHub Riga in Latvia, grow-ing the startup community in the region.
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Sponsorship
• Support Stanford student founders — You will support a program that helps student-founders succeed in their entrepreneurial journeys.
• Gain early access to founders — Cardinal Ventures is the only student-run accelerator on the Stanford campus, which means you get the earliest access to Stanford entrepreneurs. We accelerate ~35 teams/year across all of Stanford’s schools.
• Gain focused access — Unlike broader entrepreneurial clubs at Stanford, sponsoring Cardinal Ventures would allow direct access to students who are actively working on growing their companies.
• Gain community insights — You get access to a student-led management team that is plugged in to the Stanford and greater entrepreneurial ecosystem.
• Increase brand recognition — Cardinal Ventures plans 50+ events/year that cater to both a small, targeted audience as well as a large audience comprised of the entire Stanford community. This spread allows sponsors access to a wide audience for brand recognition.
• Receive tax exemptions — Cardinal Ventures is run through Stanford Student Enterprises (SSE), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization on the Stanford campus. This means your contribution is tax-deductible!
Why support us?
Sponsor an Event
Your company name beside event title
Opportunity to host post-Demo Day dinner for founders
Opportunity to invite 20 guests to Demo Day
Mention in Demo Day opening and closing remarks
Your company name beside event title
Opportunity to attend event with all founders in cohort
Opportunity to invite 5 pre-approved guests (beyond sponsor team)
DEMO DAY(All event expenses up to $10k)
MID-SESSION MIXER(All event expenses up to $5k)
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Annual SponsorshipsPLATINUM
($50k+)GOLD($30k+)
SILVER($15k+)
Exclusive access to Cardinal Ventures company names and descriptions
Invitations to Mentor Mixer, up to two Speaker Sessions, Mid-session Mixer, and Demo Day
Mention at all major events, on event materials, and on Cardinal Ventures website
Direct line of communication with CV management team
Option to have dinner with CV management once per quarter
Access to calendar of events
Reserved seating at Demo Day
Nominate someone to speak at one speaker session OR sit on a panel
Nominate one person to mentor a team
Nominate one person to be a Demo Day judge
Option to hold office hours with the cohort once per quarter
Option to sponsor a dinner with the cohort once per quarter
Access to alumni updates and information for any co-horts sponsored
Periodic social media posts about your sponsorship
Invitation to exclusive networking events and all alumni events
Exclusive pre-Demo Day mixer OR dinner
Opportunity to host one Cardinal Ventures event per cohort at company location
Logo on t-shirt distributed to all community members
Option to receive corporate innovation workshop
Option to place your company name beside event title
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Thank you so much for your support — without it, we couldn’t do our part in helping connect, educate and support the incredible student-founders at Stanford. We hope to welcome you into the Cardinal Ventures family soon!
The Cardinal Ventures Team
Yael, Tina, Sherrie, and Nathan
Thank you!
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www.cardinalventures.org
