Brown\u2019s growing student entrepreneurship landscape has begun catching the attention of some of Silicon Valley\u2019s most well-known investors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Several notable venture capital firms \u2014 including Pear VC and Y Combinator \u2014 have recently increased their presence at Brown through student fellows and campus events, receiving enthusiasm from student founders.<\/p>\n
Students interested in scaling their businesses typically secure investments through several rounds of fundraising. While Brown founders often seek initial financial support<\/a> from grants offered by the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship \u2014 which awards up to $25,000 in funding \u2014 third-party venture capital firms are giving some startups the funding they need to grow even faster.<\/p>\n Pear VC, a California venture firm focused on companies in earlier stages of development, hosted their first information session at Brown this fall. During the event, Pear VC Partner Harris Stolzenberg promoted PearX \u2014 Pear VC\u2019s 12-week start-up accelerator.<\/p>\n PearX offers pre-seed founders up to $2 million in funding, personalized mentorship and full-time support staff in San Francisco to build their ventures. Y Combinator, another notable Silicon Valley accelerator, recently accepted four Brunonians into their fall 2025 batch, The Herald previously reported<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re seeing more and more that young people \u2014 students \u2014 can create category-defining companies,\u201d Stolzenberg said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Pear VC previously collaborated closely with students from Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley. But Stolzenberg, based in Boston, is now working to expand Pear VC\u2019s reach to East Coast schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere are good builders across the East Coast, and Brown was one of those schools we wanted to spend some time at,\u201d Stolzenberg said, acknowledging the recent success of Figma, a web design tool founded by former Brown students.\u00a0<\/p>\n PearX\u2019s fall event saw a \u201cmassive turnout\u201d with nearly 100 students, according to Stolzenberg. Pear VC student fellow Everest Yang \u201926.5 was excited by the enthusiasm. Leading up to the event, about 20 eager student founders pitched their startups to him, Yang recalled.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was really awesome to see,\u201d Stolzenberg said. \u201cI think there will be a lot of companies started from Brown, going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Many other venture capital funds \u2014 including Contrary, Dorm Room Fund and Anthos Capital \u2014 have student fellows at Brown, who serve as liaisons between the entrepreneurship community on campus and fund partners.\u00a0<\/p>\n Serena Saxena \u201927 is the vice president of communications for Van Wickle Ventures, a student venture fund at Brown, and currently works as a consumer scout for Anthos Capital.<\/p>\n As a student scout, Saxena primarily interacts with startups at early stages, \u201csourcing founders, identifying trends and honing my eye for market inflection points,\u201d she wrote in a message to The Herald. \u201cI spend most of my time speaking with founders and understanding how they think about the world they\u2019re building in.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Inspired to explore venture capital after founding her own startup, Saxena saw the field \u201cnot just as a financing mechanism, but as a system that shapes who gets to build the future,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cVenture capital is traditionally a pretty black-box industry, and I became eager to unlock it,\u201d she added, noting that she was motivated by the fact that companies founded by women receive less<\/a> venture capital funding.<\/p>\n When meeting with founders at Brown, Saxena has noticed that Brown student startups are focused less on growing their business as quickly as possible and more on \u201cthoughtful creation,\u201d she wrote. \u201cBrown students approach entrepreneurship with curiosity, social awareness and collaboration, which leads to ideas that feel a lot more grounded.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to seeking out global venture funds, many students turn to the Brown community\u2019s strong network of investors for financing.<\/p>\n