风投界值得关注的七大创新计划

    • Hack/reduce（Atlas Venture风险投资公司）：这个“大数据”计划的目标是在波士顿建立一个枢纽，吸引来自私营部门的、富有经验的科技人员和刚刚从当地大学毕业的年轻科技人才，共同探索和寻求新的数据相关技术。进驻者可以获得免费的空间，还能使用数据工具、存储和数据集合。作为一家非营利组织（迄今已募集100万美元，用于运营融资），Hack/reduce不会在其培育的公司中持有股份。

    • Rough Draft Ventures（General Catalyst风投公司）：类似于首轮资本公司的Dorm Room 基金，这家由学生管理的基金得到了General Catalyst风投公司的资金支持，拟投资大波士顿地区的学生创业计划/初创企业。他们计划每年进行10-20笔投资，投资金额从几百美元到20,000美元不等。

    • University Hacker Olympics（General Catalyst）：这各项目涉及美国25家顶尖工程学校，每家大学分数最高的五名学生将受邀前往洛杉矶，参加为期3天的总决赛（费用全包）。这是一个非常聪明的举动，在美国顶尖的年轻科技人才中广撒网，提高知名度。

    首先，要向首轮资本公司致敬，它推动了这么多创新计划（紧随其后是General Catalyst风投公司）。其次，很有意思的一点是很多计划都是着重于大学，表明风投公司已经开始加大力度，希望能从创业者和吸引人才的角度更加贴近当前校园。

    我期待2013年会看到更多的创新计划：风投界领袖们正在继续创新，争夺优质公司过程中的附加值标杆将不断上升，其他公司也会努力跟进或建立自身的独特创新计划。

    本文作者目前是波士顿地区一位专注于创业企业的营销高管，过去曾担任高地资本公司的高级副总裁。

    译者：早稻米

    • Hack/reduce (Atlas Venture): A "big data" initiative aimed at establishing a nexus in Boston for bringing together experienced technologists from the private sector with young technical talent coming out of local universities to explore and pursue new data-related technologies. Residents receive free space and access to data tools, storage and sets. Setup as a nonprofit (it has raised $1 million to date to fund its operations), hack/reduce will not take equity in companies that emerge from it.

    • Rough Draft Ventures (General Catalyst): Like First Round's Dorm Room Fund, this student-led fund is backed with capital from General Catalyst to invest in student initiatives/startups in the Greater Boston area. They're looking to make 10-20 investments per year, ranging from a few hundred dollars to up to $20K.

    • University Hacker Olympics (General Catalyst): Involving 25 of the top engineering schools in the U.S., the five highest-scoring students at each university are invited to participate in an all-expenses-paid, three-day "finals" event in San Francisco. It's an exceptionally smart move to cast a wide net and get exposure into some of the top technical talent in the country.

    First, hats off to First Round Capital for being the driver behind so many of these initiatives (with General Catalyst right behind). It is also interesting to note that many of them are university-focused as firms step up their efforts to get closer to what is happening on campuses from both an entrepreneurial and talent perspective.

    I suspect we'll see more novel programs launched in 2013 as the leaders continue to innovate, the bar around value-add continues to rise in the competition for the best deals, and other firms look to match or establish unique differentiation themselves.

    Michael Gaiss (@MichaelGaiss) is a Boston-area marketing executive focused on entrepreneurs, and a former senior VP with Highland Capital Partners.