FAQs

There are many reasons to consider venture capital. Here are five that make a strong argument.

Returns: Venture capital is an asset class that has outperformed the S&P over many periods.¹

Portfolio diversification: Since VC returns are not correlated to the stock market, a venture portfolio is a way to diversify your overall portfolio.²  AV offers venture portfolios diversified by sector, stage, region, and lead investors.

Staying private longer: Fewer companies are going public than in prior periods³—and many that do already have significant value creation behind them.⁴

Impact: Many of the companies our funds invest in are tackling society’s toughest challenges in health, energy, finance, transportation, and more. Investing in VC is fundamentally an optimistic statement that the future can be better. Several of our Focused Funds address impact even more directly.

Learning: Most of our investors are naturally curious people, looking to learn and understand what is new and what is next.

(1) Maureen Austin, David Thurston, William Prout, “Building Winning Portfolios Through Private Investments,” Cambridge Associates, August 2021. Data is from 12/31/2020., (2) Invesco, “The Case for Venture Capital,” Invesco White Paper Series, accessed January 11, 2022 (showing venture capital performance uncorrelated to large-cap equities),  (3) Invesco, “The Case for Venture Capital,” Invesco White Paper Series, accessed January 11, 2022, (4) Anna Zakrzewski et al., “The Future is Private: Unlocking the Art of Private Equity in Wealth Management,” BCG, March 2022. 4. Jason Thomas, “Global Insights Reflections on the Revolution in Finance,” Carlyle, February 8, 2021

Alumni Ventures is a distinguished and reputable player in the venture capital industry and offers accredited individuals access to professional-grade venture capital. We are a top-quartile venture firm with a proven track record spanning over a decade, recognized as one of the Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company in 2022 and a Top 20 Venture Firm by CB Insights in 2024. Our firm was founded in 2014 with a particular focus on individual accredited investors and a well-defined and rigorous approach to evaluating and selecting investment opportunities. With an emphasis on network-powered venture capital, fueled by a community of over 625K members, Alumni Ventures has invested in over 1,300 portfolio companies and established itself as the most active venture firm in the U.S. and the third most active venture capital firm worldwide, according to PitchBook’s 2022 and 2023 rankings.

Broad and diversified venture portfolios with community: Most venture investors to date have been institutions that could commit millions per venture firm and have the resources to invest in multiple venture firms. In contrast, AV provides accredited individuals with a venture portfolio for as little as $25K.

Deal access and flow: We offer investors access to a portfolio of highly competitive deals invested alongside other established venture firms. Our investment activity has made us the #1 most active venture firm in the U.S. according to PitchBook’s 2022 and 2023 rankings.

Risk management through large, diversified portfolios: Our funds provide diversification across stage, sector, geography, and lead investor. In addition, given venture’s power law characteristics (a few huge winners offset losers), larger venture portfolios tend to have better performance characteristics than smaller venture portfolios.⁵ Compare this to individuals who do an occasional one-off deal. For them, the likelihood of a substantial or complete loss of capital increases significantly.

Co-investing strategy: We invest alongside other established VCs with sector and/or stage expertise who lead the round and negotiate terms. Accessing promising venture deals is what our investment team of ~40 people is committed to delivering for you.

Community: AV leverages a network of 625,000+ subscribers and community members to source capital and deals, conduct due diligence, and assist portfolio companies. As our community grows daily, so does our commitment to investor engagement, education, and network sourcing.

(5) Steven Crossan, “Modelling Suggests Rational Venture Investors Should Have Bigger Portfolios,” April 11, 2018.

We have ~40 investment professionals across AV’s family of funds and our Office of Investing (or OOI), whose expertise is used to source and evaluate potential deals and balance portfolios. Our Office of Investing, under our CIO, helps coordinate deals, source, research, and execute deals. Each of our actively managed funds also has its own Investment Committee consisting of experienced investors and business executives.

Most of our Alumni Funds and Focused Funds are managed by a team of 3-4 full-time investment professionals per fund with strong investing and entrepreneurial experience. For each individual portfolio company being considered by a sponsor fund, investment decision-making is process-based, and the ultimate decision is a collective vote of the sponsor fund, the sponsor fund’s Investment Committee, and the AV Investment Committee.

Our Total Access Fund and Foundation Fund are managed by AV’s Office of Investing, with portfolios created from deals sourced and invested in by our Alumni Funds and Focused Funds.

See our performance record here.

You can see our Loyalty, Rewards, Performance, and Fees brochure here. Note that our Loyalty Program rewards investors for both early commitment of capital during a fundraising and for total commitment over time.

Our funds are only open to accredited investors. The SEC defines an accredited investor as someone who (a) has earned income that exceeded $200,000 (or $300,000 together with a spouse) in each of the prior two years, and reasonably expects the same for the current year, OR (b) has a net worth over $1 million, either alone or together with a spouse (excluding the value of the person’s primary residence), OR (c) holds certain professional designations in good standing. Other methods of showing accreditation are available to entity investors. We partner with Parallel Markets. Further details are available here.

Investors can get a diversified professional-grade venture portfolio for as low as $25,000. Investment minimums vary by fund and circumstances. Check the fund’s respective subscription documents for details.

We are network powered, with a community of more than 625K subscribers and supporters. Beyond capital, we leverage our community to provide our portfolio companies with helpful connections, customers, and other robust CEO Services, including:

CEO Club: This private, safe space is exclusively for Alumni Ventures CEOs to learn from and network among the ~1,300 founders and CEOs we’ve backed.

Opening Doors: We offer an unparalleled network of more than 600K alumni, investors, and experts to move your business forward. While there are no guarantees, we believe we’re one-degree of separation away from anyone you may want to connect with.

Test Drive: Privately discuss your pitch with a panel of trusted experts who can help refine your presentation, evaluate your growth plan, and optimize your fundraising strategy.

AVTV: We will help you prep a 5-minute introduction on your company and then share it with our network of 625K+ community members. It’s a chance to present your story and make an ask of AV’s supportive audience.

Spaces: Need a working space for the day, some informal venture or operating advice, or maybe just a good cup of coffee? Use on of our six offices, all conveniently located in major venture hubs, with more to come.

We invest in companies at all stages—from pre-seed to pre-IPO—across all regions, and in (almost) all sectors. Our check size ranges from $100K to $10M with a sweet spot of $1M – $3M.

Beyond promising investments led by elite teams, we’re drawn to opportunities where we believe we can help. Often there is a strong alumni connection to one or more of our 18 Alumni Funds where we can catalyze company-building flywheels with our alumni communities.

We also have Focused Funds. Some invest by sector (AI, Deep Tech, etc.), others by stage (Seed and Growth), and others by theme.

It’s important to know that we are strictly a co-investor. We don’t sit on boards or set terms. We do try to be as helpful as we can.

No, but it helps if an executive on your team, board, your lead VC, or other friends of the company have an alumni connection. We’re called Alumni Ventures, but our goal is to back the best entrepreneurs whether or not they went to one of our focus schools.

We know raising a round is a pain, so we run a fast, low-friction, but disciplined investment process. And because we know what we’re looking for, we offer crisp execution from our initial investment to potential downstream rounds as your business grows. Please check in with other entrepreneurs we’ve backed. You’ll find that we’ve never missed a round because we couldn’t move fast enough.

We’d love to hear from you. You can reach us at [email protected] or submit the form above. We welcome building relationships for the long term, but note that we can only commit to your round after you have secured a lead VC.

There are a number of ways to get involved, even if you’re not raising a round.

• Join our Expert Community and advise one of our portfolio companies.
• Sign up for one or more of our newsletters by pressing the purple “Get Started” button.
• Want to refer or help vet or refer an investment opportunity? Reach out here.
• Or you can refer talent to one of our portfolio companies or to Alumni Ventures itself. Check our job boards here.

Please see our Application Information Page for details on how to apply, including the application process, deadlines, and link to the application.

Fellows must a) be located in the United States, b) have a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent, and c) must not be an investor in Alumni Ventures or one of our funds.

No; experience in venture capital is not required, only a passion for VC and career aspirations in the ecosystem.

There is no cost to participants; Alumni Ventures covers the full cost of the program and required resources.

Fellows who share a university affiliation with one of Alumni Ventures’ alumni funds are typically considered to be a Fellow with the corresponding fund. However, alumni affiliation is not required; fellows of all university affiliations and backgrounds can apply to the VFP.

Graduates of the fellow program move into a variety of roles in the VC and entrepreneurial ecosystem including working as venture capital investors, founders/CEOs of startups, operators at a VC or startup, VC fund managers and more.