Julien Bourgeois (left), an Ole Miss freshman, tosses a ball to Andrew Bradford, his partner at the University of New Orleans, as part of their Rebel Student Venture Fund pitch for Automatic AI LLC. Business school board members awarded $2,000 to Automatic, a company that aims to use Apple Watch motion sensor technology to help improve athletes in recreational sports. Its first application is a basketball coach. Photo by Amy Howell/University Development
OXFORD, Miss. – When University of Mississippi student Eli Allen, of Collinsville, received a scholarship in 2015 from Rebel Student Venture Capital Fundthis allowed him to fully concentrate on creating Reverencea mobile application that makes it easy to thrift and sell clothing, shoes, accessories and much more.
Curtsy has grown into a national company and its projected revenue for 2023 is $30 million.
Train successful entrepreneurs and stimulate the economy – a goal of UM Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship – depends on financial support for starting student businesses. That’s where RSVF, a nonprofit organization started by alumni that provides seed grants, comes in.
“I was in graduate school and my business partner William Ault was doing odd jobs to pay the bills,” said Allen, who moved to San Francisco with his business after graduation. “We worked on Curtsy in our free time. Receiving the grant gave us enough money so that we could devote our full attention to the project; it also gave us legitimacy which allowed us to attract other angel investors.
“Shortly after receiving the Rebel Student Venture Fund grant, we were both working full-time on Curtsy, and we also brought on David Oates, a talented designer with startup experience as CEO. Starting a business requires 1,000% commitment from everyone involved, and this was possible thanks to this initial cash grant.
Curtsy founders (left to right) William Ault, Eli Allen, Clara Agnes Ault and David Oates benefited from the Rebel Student Venture Fund, which supports aspiring entrepreneurs at the university. Their business is expected to generate $30 million in revenue this year, and they hope to encourage other student entrepreneurs when they speak at the sixth annual REDe Entrepreneurship Summit, scheduled for Nov. 6 on campus. Photo submitted
Curtsy co-founders – Allen, Ault, Oates and Clara Agnes Ault, who were named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2021 – will speak Nov. 2 at the sixth annual REDe Entrepreneurship Summit about their entrepreneurial journey. The summit, hosted by the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, takes place from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. in the Ole Miss Student Union Ballroom. For more information, Click here.
The startup provided by the RSVF and the pro-entrepreneurship community at Ole Miss made all the difference in creating the company, Allen said.
“From networking and collaborating on business presentations at the Entrepreneurs Club to the wonderful office space we were granted at Insight Park, we had an extremely strong foundation to start from,” he said. “We have built relationships with countless university professors and local business owners who have offered us free advice, and some of them have even become investors. »
Curtsy is a peer-to-peer marketplace, which means it must attract customers to meet both the company’s supply and demand.
“This type of business is notoriously difficult to start, but thanks to the strong social aspect of the Ole Miss Greek system, we were able to jump-start our growth as our first customers shared bows with their sorority sisters,” Allen explained.
“My dream has always been to create something that people love. Millions of people have bought or sold something on Curtsy, and I love being able to work on something every day that is so important to so many people.
The RSVF exists thanks to donations made by UM alumni and friends interested in supporting Ole Miss student start-up businesses, and the School of Business Administration is working to increase this private support. Since fall 2014, the Venture Fund has granted $123,684 to 49 student businesses.
Clay Dibrell, professor of management, chair of entrepreneurial excellence and co-director of the Entrepreneurship Center, described the impact of the fund.
“RSVF funds play an instrumental role in giving our student entrepreneurs the resources to better understand who their customer is and to create the products and services customers want. At an extremely early stage of development, these student-led businesses have a better chance of success with these grants.
The RSVF Investment Committee evaluates grant applications from qualified student-led startups. Grants range from $500 to $5,000, but those who get them receive more than monetary resources. One of the board members of the RSVF investment committee becomes an informal advisor to the company.
“We received such a variety of interesting ideas,” said Gus Ezcurra, RSVF volunteer leader and senior vice president of mid-market sales at Equinix in San Francisco. “Many of these are ideas that take advantage of the latest technologies.
“Entrepreneurship and innovation help individuals become independent and channel their creativity to create their own project in this competitive world. »
The RSVF has evolved from a community foundation to the University of Mississippi Foundation, a development that Dibrell believes will produce positive results through faster disbursement of funds and awards to support student entrepreneurs.
To support the Rebel Student Venture Fund, send a check to the UM Foundation, with the fund name written in the memo line, at 406 University Ave., Oxford, MS 38655; or online here. For more information about supporting the fund, contact Angela Brown, senior director of development for the School of Business Administration, at browna@olemiss.edu or 662-915-3181.
