We’re Launching a Class!

For a class that doesn’t start until Spring 2013, Venture Investing for Impact is already absurdly popular. The 20 seats available for registration filled before the promotional flyer could be distributed. When the class was expanded to 35 seats, it filled again within days. And I know these students will not be disappointed.

The class represents an extraordinary collaboration between multiple departments in USC Marshall – it is a class hosted by the Greif Center for Entrepreneurship, taught by a Senior Fellow of the Society & Business Lab, and inspired by Finance & Business Economics curriculum and the Center for Investment Studies.

It was also instigated by Conquest Capital Ventures – my ragtag group of students building a student-run venture capital fund for social enterprise.

Launching this class is only one piece of the broader purpose of CCV. Nevertheless, it represents an enormous step forward by helping us build credibility and provide structure. On top of that, I’m tremendously proud that my team and I played a key role in offering something powerful and unique for USC students.

How powerful? I am deeply confident because of one reason: Fran Seegull, the professor for Venture Investing for Impact.

I won’t repeat her credentials, but I will say this: she gets it. She gets that conscientious investors are necessary in a world with amoral financial markets. She gets that students not only want to learn about this paradigm shift, but they also want to cause it. She gets that we are energized when asked for our best. She gets that we are inspired by mentors with passion.

Of course, we’ll see what happens next semester. But I have high hopes.

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