First Round Capital

First Round Capital
IndustryVenture Capital
Founded2004; 20 years ago (2004)
FounderJosh Kopelman
Howard L. Morgan
HeadquartersSan Francisco
Websitewww.firstround.com

First Round Capital is a US-based venture capital firm that specializes in providing seed-stage funding to technology companies.

Founded by Josh Kopelman[1] and Howard Morgan[2] First Round typically provides seed-stage funding and focuses on portfolio companies' growth during their first 18 months. It has offices in San Francisco, Philadelphia and New York.

Dorm Room Fund

In 2012 First Round Capital created the Dorm Room Fund, a $10 million[citation needed] fund focused on investments in student-run startups.[3] In 2019, the firm launched the Graduate Fund, a pre-seed fund for recent graduates of undergraduate or master's programs.[4] The firm is operated by full-time undergraduate and graduate students.[5][6] It has backed companies that have raised a combined $300 million in venture capital from investors including Y Combinator, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Union Square Ventures.[7] The firm has teams in San Francisco, New York City, Philadelphia, and Boston.

In addition to providing early-stage capital,[8] Dorm Room Fund draws upon its own resources as well as First round's to support student entrepreneurs.[5] In January 2018, Dorm Room Fund's Head of Engineering Yasyf Mohamedali launched VCWiz, a tool to help founders (student or otherwise) research, discover, and reach out to seed-stage investors.[9]

References

  1. ^ Well-Known Tech Investor Aims Higher, cnnmoney.com, September 7, 2007
  2. ^ Mark Suster (April 21, 2011). ""Want To Know How First Round Capital Was Started?"". Fast Company.
  3. ^ "First Round Expands $500K Student-Run Investment Arm, Dorm Room Fund, To New York City Universities – TechCrunch". techcrunch.com. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
  4. ^ "New pre-seed fund powered by First Round Capital will target recent graduates". TechCrunch. 17 January 2019. Retrieved 2019-01-17.
  5. ^ a b Casserly, Meghan. "The Dorm Room Fund: A Conversation With First Round Capital's Phin Barnes". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  6. ^ Ramsinghani, Mahendra (2014). The Business of Venture Capital. Wiley. p. 192. ISBN 978-1-118-75219-7.
  7. ^ "DRF 5-Year Report". 5years.dormroomfund.com. Retrieved 2018-03-26.
  8. ^ Konrad, Alex. "College-Specific Funds Are On The Rise – But Are They Built To Last?". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  9. ^ "Dorm Room Fund has built a CRM for founders raising a seed round". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-11-13.