Monday, November 5, 2012

Upstart is in Beta - Check It Out

Help Support the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs

I posted previously about a great new company called Upstart that I’ve been helping to get off the ground. Now Upstart is in Beta. I’ve already backed more than a dozen outstanding Upstarts  and you should consider doing the same.

Upstart is Kickstarter for people: a crowd-funding platform that allows college grads to raise capital in exchange for a small share of their personal income over 10 years.  It aims to make it easier for grads to pursue what they really want instead of following a traditional job path, by matching the Upstarts with mentors and giving them a modest amount of economic freedom (to retire student debt or fund the first step of their dreams).  

At this point, Upstart has launched its first pilot class of funded students (that's one of them, Ian Shakil, above), and also attracted more than 30 leading universities into the Upstart network.  The company has also generated a great deal of positive press for its approach to addressing a major problem.

Now that Upstart is featuring its next batch of profiles, I wanted to invite you to join me in supporting the next generation of great entrepreneurs.

You can invest as little as $100 in an Upstart. I’d recommend diversification by spreading your investment among five or more Upstarts to maximize risk/return.  The great part about this is that you get returns that are better than T-Bills AND you are supporting specific young people who are pursuing alternative career paths  the kind of paths that usually lead to the most value creation in our economy (NOT investment banking or consulting).

You can browse some of the new Upstart profiles here:  https://beta.upstart.com/upstarts

You can register to be a backer here:  http://beta.upstart.com/register?code=b4d9ad169139872384acd56b10a9ff1d

About Upstart

Upstart was founded earlier this year by my close friend Dave Girouard, who was president of Google Enterprise for eight years (cloud apps, Gmail, Calendar, Google Docs, etc). Dave brought over a few members of his team from Google. Upstart was seed-funded by Kleiner, NEA, Google Ventures, First Round, and Mark Cuban, and the company and its team are off and running.

You can find some recent press on Upstart here:

   

1 comment:

  1. Thanks Andy! You've been an incredible help in getting Upstart off the ground. We're thrilled to have your support

    ReplyDelete