Bearcat Ventures

Congratulations to our fund’s first investment Tembo —already making us money🚀

🦄 UNICORN UPDATE 🦄   A recent study from Stanford University finds the #1 university in the nation for producing unicorn founders is…the University of Cincinnati. 🎯 Here's the backstory of one of these Bearcat unicorns: Chris Wanstrath. Chris was hooked on gaming at an early age. So much so that he taught himself computer programming at the age of 12—with the goal of making his own games. While attending St. X High School, Chris pursued his passion by working retail jobs at GameStop and EBGames. Chris enrolled at the University of Cincinnati in 2003. In his words, “I couldn’t decide if I wanted to make movies or novels or games or music or code, so I went to college for English.” By his own admission, Chris spent considerably more time coding than going to class. 😎 Which is why he left UC early, with the full support of his family, and moved to San Francisco to dive deeper into the world of technology. Talk about fearlessness and fortitude. 💪 ☑ Chris was only 20-years-old at the time. ☑ He was moving 2,300 miles from home. ☑ And he was a self-taught programmer entering a professional world of formally trained experts boasting computer science and computer engineering degrees. After a successful stint in the corporate sector, Chris took the entrepreneurial leap. 💥 In 2008, he co-founded GitHub, a breakthrough platform that allows developers to create, manage and share their code. GitHub took the world by storm, becoming the largest developer platform in history—with more than 100 million users. 💯 Chris served as GitHub’s first CEO from 2008 to 2012. He returned to the role in 2013, leading the company until its acquisition in 2018. Yes, that’s right. Within only a decade’s time, Chris went from building a company from scratch…to selling it to Microsoft for some mega scratch (to the tune of $7.5 billion). 🚀 In 2022, Chris launched Null Games, a developer-friendly publisher of indie games for PC, Macs and consoles. 🕹 Talk about coming full circle. ⭕ And did I happen to mention that Chris has done all of this before turning 40⁉ Here are my three takeaways: ✅ Don’t let your education, as the saying goes, get in the way of your learning; keep your curiosity on steroids. ✅ Finding your tribe is great; finding a way to deliver extra-ordinary value to that tribe is even better. ✅ Never underestimate the ability of creators, builders and developers to unlock the impossible; going from zero to one is the apex of innovation. 📢 Bearcats, you know the drill. Let’s share Chris’s unicorn story as far and as wide as possible. 📢   Go Bearcats! P.S. Chris will be the keynote speaker at UC’s Founders Funders Summit on September 20, 2024 at the 1819 Innovation Hub. #NextLivesHere

Excited to finally announce our $1M Student Venture Fund's first two investments made earlier this spring 💸 🐘 Tembo - the Postgres developer platform for building every data service founded by University of Cincinnati alum Ry Walker 👥 Band Connect -providing a connected health platform enabling physical therapists to virtually recreate the in-clinic experience for their patients at home, increasing therapy adherence and unlocking clinical and economic benefits for both patient and clinic founded by University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning alum Abby McInturf and Rohit Nayak Congratulations to the entire Bearcat Ventures executive and fund member team who realized Bearcat Ventures founder (now alum) Rob Manz original vision for UC to have a student venture fund: our leader, managing partner Jay Kothari, who set the vision and managed our execution, managing partner Jaden Walton and partners Victoria Littlejohn, Nida Aslam, Loyd Briski who developed our internal co-curricular VC education training program (now run every semester), sourcing pipeline, communications, and operational framework while leading their own team of fund members to review potential deals, and our first trained group of fund analysts who reviewed the deals and contributed to our first two investments: Aniruddhan Ramesh Joe Kuncheria Panjikaran Jacob Wernke Sean Lipaj Kaus Shankar Joshua Jerin Ethan Luxenburg and our dedicated fund advisor Joe Maruschak. We could not have done this without the leadership and support of President Neville Pinto, Dean Marianne Lewis, Chief Innovation & Strategy Officer ryan hays, Karl Scheer, and the legal and financial support of Andrew Conley and Shanah Cole, MBA and our amazing fund investment committee members whose counsel, advice and oversight keep us honest: Robert Fealy Tony Zingale Lynne Laube Andrew Goldner Tim Metzner Emma Scharfenberger Off Elizabeth Edwards Scott Jacobs Chris Hjelm Peter Schmidt Sean Parker Marvin Abrinica Max Dworin and Rob Manz Read more about the Bearcat Ventures' Student Venture Fund and our first two investments: https://lnkd.in/geFVjStn

We brought a dozen Bearcat Ventures members to cheer on PhizzIO founders Aniruddhan Ramesh and Joe Kuncheria Panjikaran as they presented at last night's #StartupCincy Demo Night 👥 Ani shared the current state of Phizzo technology which allows physical therapists to track and monitor patient progress --check out Ani's demo! Read more on how PhizzIO has developed and grown since the team won our inaugural UC Startup Weekend in 2023: https://lnkd.in/gx_iSMx3

Twenty months ago University of Cincinnati - College of Engineering and Applied Science undergraduate student and Teravus co-founder Jason Murray and co-founder Miranda Baras walked into our center with a healthcare idea about creating a better system to monitor patient vitals during wait times in emergency rooms based on a real-life situation that adversely impacted Miranda's father ⚕ 🚑 Over the following year and a half, Jason and Miranda have grown their venture by engaging in the following center and UC Venture Lab resources: ✔ Completing our Venture Lab pre-accelerator (Cohort 22) and NEXT accelerators where they were connected to Venture Lab healthcare experts or Entrepreneurs-In-Residence (EIR) like Kim Chin who now currently serves on the Teravus advisory board ✔ Taking 3rd place in our 2023 New Venture Championship competition ✔ Jason serving as the Innovation Co-Chair for our semester-long Innovation Challenge program in partnership with CEAS Tribunal ✔ Jason competing on our Bearcat Ventures 2023 VCIC (Venture Capital Investment Competition) team ✔ The team successfully pitched to secure over $125,000 non-dilutive UC funding Additionally, Jason benefited developing Teravus technology through his BME - University of Cincinnati senior capstone year being helped by key engineering faculty Jason Heikenfeld and Aaron Burdette among many others. During our inaugural 1819 Innovation Hub Founders Funders alumni event in September 2023, Jason and Miranda met University of Cincinnati College of Medicine alum and serial founder Dr. Marvin Slepian who saw the healthcare potential of what Jason and Miranda were building and the three have now joined forces as they take Teravus to the next stage of development with clinical trials commencing soon. It takes an 'experienced village' or ecosystem to help founders build and grow their startups At the University of Cincinnati, we are excited to support founders like Jason, Miranda and Dr. Slepian and look forward to continuing to support this teams' venture development in the months ahead as they bring their lifesaving technology to market. Read more about Teravus' journey here: https://lnkd.in/ghjSYUKf. 1819 Innovation Hub University of Cincinnati - College of Engineering and Applied Science University of Cincinnati Carl H. Lindner College of Business ryan hays John Weidner Marianne Lewis University of Cincinnati Alumni Association Nicola Ziady Geoffrey Pinski Joe Maruschak

Meet the Rushlight Ventures team! Camryn Ellis is a Venture Analyst at Rushlight Ventures. She holds a bachelor’s degree in international business and entrepreneurship from the University of Cincinnati. Camryn was a partner for Bearcat Ventures, leading a team in due diligence, financial valuations, and investment decisions. She also contributed to UC’s Venture Capital Investment Competition team. Her passion for entrepreneurship and her blend of academic knowledge and practical experience equip her to identify and nurture innovative ventures effectively. Interested in learning more about how we can work together? Contact Rushlight Ventures, LLC today: https://lnkd.in/eAe22MvC

Excited to have Managing Partner Jay Kothari highlighted in this Microsoft video and sharing the mission of Bearcat Ventures ‼

Congratulations to University of Cincinnati alum and Bearcat Student Venture Fund Investment Committee member Elizabeth Edwards on your big news‼️

The Board of Trustees awarded a Doctor of Arts and Humane Letters Honoris Causa to UC graduate and standout soccer player Tim Brown, co-founder and chief innovation officer for the sustainable shoe and clothing company Allbirds. Board of Trustees member Michelle Gillis presented the honorary degree to Brown “for his deep understanding of the study of design, his expertise in entrepreneurship and his commitment to sustainability.” Brown studied graphic design in UC's College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning before turning pro, playing for the Richmond Kickers in Virginia, the Newcastle Jets in Australia and the Wellington Phoenix in New Zealand. “A quarter century ago, you followed a soccer scholarship 8,000 miles from New Zealand to Cincinnati to chase a childhood dream,” Pinto said. At UC, Pinto said, Brown developed the entrepreneurial spirit that would inspire him to create a publicly traded company valued today at $1 billion. “Later, as vice captain for the New Zealand All Whites, you led your soccer team to the pinnacle of success, the FIFA World Cup,” he said. Brown used his experience as a professional athlete and designer to make what Time magazine called “the world’s most comfortable shoe.” Allbirds uses natural and sustainable fibers like wool. Pinto referenced UC's strategic direction called Next Lives Here in praising Brown's accomplishments. “Tim Brown, you are the embodiment of what 'next' truly is: innovative, entrepreneurial, future-focused and socially conscious,” Pinto said. Congratulations, Tim!

🦄 UNICORN UPDATE 🦄   A new study from Stanford University finds the #1 university in the nation for producing unicorn founders is…the University of Cincinnati. 🚀   Here's the backstory of one of these Bearcat unicorns: Tim Brown.   👇 👇 👇   Becoming a professional athlete is rare. Rarer still is being a professional athlete who retires to build a billion-dollar company from scratch. 💯     Meet Tim Brown.   Tim grew up in New Zealand before enrolling at the University of Cincinnati to study design and play soccer. 📌   Tim spent six years playing professional soccer before retiring in 2012. Soon thereafter, he decided to put his disruptive idea to the test: Could he create a high-performing sneaker made from wool? 🧐   Tim's research led to more research…which led to even more research…which eventually led to a prototype. He then launched a Kickstarter campaign and sold 1,000 pairs of shoes in just four days.   He explained the challenge of these early days this way: “Making shoes is difficult, but making shoes when you don’t know what you’re doing and have no capital is even harder.” 💡   Tim had plenty of reasons to give up, and he was on the brink of doing so when he met his co-founder, Joey Zwillinger.   Together, they doubled-down on Tim’s original vision: The world needed a shoe that raised the bar on comfort, style, simplicity and sustainability via the purposeful use of eco-friendly materials. 🎯   In 2017, with $2.7 million in seed funding, they co-founded Allbirds (a B Corp organization that seeks to balance purpose and profit).   Their signature wool shoe quickly became so popular in the Bay Area that the NYT called them “Silicon Valley’s cobblers.” Next came a slew of celebrities who sported their ultra-hip shoes, including Leonardo DiCaprio (who reportedly invested in the company). 👀   Allbirds went public in 2021 with a $4 billion valuation.   Since that time, the company has encountered major challenges on multiple fronts, leading to a dramatic drop in its valuation. 👉 But Tim, to his credit, has been refreshingly honest, eloquent and resilient about these well-publicized struggles.   Tim recently moved from Co-CEO to the Chief Innovation Officer role to redouble his focus on rebuilding the company’s strategic core.     In the world of unicorns, Tim’s story is both unique and inspiring. 😎   Here are my three takeaways:   ✅ Keep the embers of your curiosity burning bright; because a different time, place or perspective can set them ablaze.   ✅ The world is full of second—and third and fourth—acts; write your own script rather than read from somebody else’s.   ✅ Always stay humble and hungry; tomorrow owes you nothing.   Later this month, Tim will receive an honorary doctoral degree from UC. It is the University’s highest honor. 🏆   📣 Bearcats, you know the drill. Let’s share Tim’s unicorn story as far and as wide as possible. 📣   Go Bearcats!