Recapping Dartmouth Innovation and Technology Festival 2022
The event was a catalyst for speakers and alumni to discuss innovation at Dartmouth
Spring is the right time to celebrate entrepreneurship at Dartmouth! From May 12-14, I headed to Hanover for the dedication of the new West End. The title of the event, “Dartmouth Innovation and Technology Festival,” speaks to the excitement on campus and in the Dartmouth ecosystem around startups. So thrilling! See below to read my key takeaways from the event.
Highlights
- Judged the One Dartmouth Startup Competition. This enabled us to meet early founders across all of Dartmouth (Tuck, undergrad, Thayer, etc.) and support the mission of the Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship.
- Spent quality time with Green D investors and founders. For instance, I had dinner with a serial Green D investor and angel investor and connected with Dave Girouard (D ’88), CEO of Upstart (GD3).
- Secured at least one investment opportunity. We’ll share more details when we’re able!
Impressions
The Class of ’82 Building is a physical manifestation of the progress of the “innovation arts” at Dartmouth. It sits in the new West End of campus, anchored on one side by the Tuck School of Business and housing the Thayer School of Engineering.
The ’82 building offers classes for computer science and bioengineering, as well as the Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship. The open spaces invite collaboration. Already ~2/3 of Dartmouth students take at least one engineering or CS course before they graduate, and >50% of engineering majors are women. This very Dartmouth-y way of inviting the liberal arts into the engineering and CS classes is now represented in a physical space that will only increase collaboration and innovation.
The event had Dartmouth speakers from the policy, business, startup, and academic arenas. Evident throughout the conference was a sense of pride that Dartmouth (through this major alumni investment) is uniquely poised to solve the world’s hardest problems.
An example was a climate panel with a Dartmouth Congresswoman, a solar expert, a McKinsey Partner, and a Professor. After the group posed an opportunity for large scale investors to solve a hard problem, they received a follow-up question from a Dartmouth ’82 who is a Trustee and public company CEO. The Congresswoman invited him to come to her office in D.C. to help solve it. Somehow, the world compressed at that moment, where academia met business met policy, in Hanover, in the basement of the new building.
Join Green D Ventures Fund 10
Green D Ventures allows accredited investors in the Dartmouth community to own a diversified portfolio of ~20-30 venture-backed companies — many with a Dartmouth connection. We are asking for commitments to Green D Fund 10 by September 30, 2023. You can secure your spot in Fund 10 by visiting our secure portal and signing your Subscription Agreement. You can also connect with our team if you have any outstanding questions.
Contact [email protected] for additional information. To see additional risk factors and investment considerations, visit av-funds.com/disclosures.