Like all crazy ideas, Dorm Room Fund first started out with a question.
How do we help the best and brightest students across the nation start their own companies while also attending school full-time?
The solution: an independent fund to give students in the ‘dorm room stage’ the capital they need to build their minimum viable product. A fund entirely for students, and run by students who deeply understand their campus ecosystems and the struggles of being a dorm room entrepreneur.
Backed by First Round Capital and their own resident dorm room entrepreneur, Josh Kopelman, Dorm Room Fund piloted in Philadelphia in 2012 with a $500K fund. We, and the rest of VC, haven’t looked back since.
Nearly a decade and over 300 investments later, we’re reaffirming our commitment to student entrepreneurship. In 2020, we opened our investment teams to students from outside our main geographical hubs for the first time in DRF history. We also launched the Blueprint Investor Track to empower aspiring underrepresented VCs, and doubled down on the Female Founders Track to give female and non-binary students a masterclass on entrepreneurship.
Building on that momentum, we’re excited to re-introduce ourselves today with a brand-new Dorm Room Fund — logo, website, and all. Nice to meet you 🤗
New Look, Who Dis?
Our new look is more than just a fresh (and we mean, fresh) makeover. Our HQ team has put a lot of intention into the rebrand and we couldn’t be prouder to show it off. Here’s a breakdown of what’s new and why we’re doing this now.
Our Logo — An Open (Dorm Room) Door of Possibility
Starting a company is really hard. Add in being a full-time student? Entrepreneurship becomes that much harder.
As students ourselves, we know the grind and respect the hustle. That’s why at Dorm Room Fund, we’re in the business of empowering students beyond just a $20,000 check. We’re here to support our founders in every possible way, from brainstorming on go-to-market strategy to advising on company pitch decks to introducing you to your seed investor.
Our new logo represents our all-hands-on-deck mentality and our goal of opening entrepreneurship’s doors to all students no matter what they look like, how they identify, or where they attend school. We’re committed to meeting you where you are and at the earliest stages possible — when you’re piecing together your product’s first iteration in your university dorm room.
Our Website — A Bold, Modern Take on Student VC
As our old website states, we’re the best way for student founders to grow their startup. But, despite that, we felt we had outgrown it and wanted a new site to capture the impact our fund can have on students and their companies. So, on top of our new logo, we’re also proud to announce our spankin’ new website, and our promise:
We’ve got your back.
With a new decade and a vastly different world of students, tech, and startups to explore from when we first launched in 2012, we recognize the need to give Dorm Room Fund a much-needed injection of energy and excitement. That means a bolder, fresher, and much more modern appeal if we want to keep up with the next wave of students in tech.
Our old website (pictured above) got the job done and set the foundations for a successful first few years of the fund. But like many of the startups we work with, we’ve improved on our first iteration and are rocking a whole new look that is more aligned with our long-term goals.
Not only is our new website sleeker and more organized, but it also focuses on the most important part of Dorm Room Fund — our community. When students join DRF, they gain more than just $20,000 checks. They also gain an empowering, supportive, and inclusive network of students and alumni all across the world.
We’re more than just a fund. We’re here to support you on all stages of your entrepreneurial journey and to help you get results. Joining Dorm Room Fund means taking your company to the next-level, and we needed a next-level website to convey that value too.
Why now?
The world is changing at a rapid pace and students are leading the way. In the past year alone, we’ve seen DRF portfolio companies normalizing hormone health, setting new standards for healthy and sustainable foods, building healthy feedback culture, reimagining the future of computing, and making the pandemic a little less lonely.
All across the nation, students are thinking up solutions to the world’s biggest problems and building the next tech unicorns. And they’re just getting started.
If we have any hope of keeping up with the changing face of student entrepreneurship, then we need to change with it. Our new website is bold and modern, and it shows that we’re ready to tackle the world’s challenges together.
We’ve got your back. Here’s to a new era of student entrepreneurship.
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Want to learn more about the Dorm Room Fund rebrand? Send an e-mail to jeremy@dormroomfund.com!
Get more Dorm Room Fund news and updates on Twitter and learn more on our website. Want more DRF content? Subscribe to our newsletter and podcast. Ready to take your startup to the next level? Apply here to be considered for an investment from Dorm Room Fund. Until next time! 🚀