Startup Submission

If you are an entrepreneur raising funding, read more to learn about our investment thesis and how we operate. If we're a good match, send an email to our Managing Directors, Brian Seckel and Mackenzie Friedman with some basic info listed below.

Who are we?

The Deming Center Venture Fund (DCVF) is a venture capital fund made up of multidisciplinary grad students: MBAs, law students, and engineers at CU Boulder. Created both as hands-on educational opportunity and way to support early-stage Colorado companies, DCVF is a venture fund that prioritizes growing and improving the Colorado startup ecosystem.Ìý

What do we invest in?

DCVF invests in early-stage startups with connections to the Colorado and CU Boulder communities. We write $25,000 checks in exchange for equity, convertible debt, or a similar security. We are industry agnostic, however the company needs to be venture scalable and connected to Colorado or CU in some way.Ìý

Why work with us?

Our process respects valuable founder time, and consists of:

  • 30-minute initial meeting
  • 30-minute pitch and q&a
  • Provide access to data room and answer round of diligence questions

We support prospective and portfolio companies by keeping things simple:

  • No term negotiation, we sign on to same terms as lead investor
  • Pitch to investment decision timeline of 4-5 weeks, can be as short as 3 weeks if required
  • No investor pressure to pass along, we're funded by donors
  • Hands-off, but we're available to help how we can

See our investment process below for more details on how we operate.

Sound like a fit?

If you think you fit our thesis, please send an email to our Managing Directors, Brian Seckel and Mackenzie Friedman.

Please provide us with:Ìý

  • Website or overview of your company
  • Details of the round you’re raising
  • Pitch deck

We normally respond to submissions within 72 hours.

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Investment Process

  • Founder Meeting - 30-minute initial discussion with 1-3 DCVF members*
  • Initial internal diligence by small group of members
  • Internal team vote to bring in for pitch
  • Pitch - 30-minute in-person or virtual pitch + q&a with entire DCVF team*
  • Internal discussion and vote to do deeper diligence
  • Access data room and internal diligence by entire team
  • Round of diligence questions*
  • Internal discussion and final vote to invest

*involves founder