Highway To Heaven

Universities with entrepreneurship programs can be fertile ground for finding angels. The connection between entrepreneurial academia and successful business start-ups is so well-established (Stanford University and Cisco Systems--need we say more?) that universities attract even more angel investors than incubators do.

The important thing is getting in, seeing if there's a vein to be mined and, if there's not, moving on. Many universities have alumni angel networks, SBA-sponsored Small Business Development Centers, and professors and deans who are wired into angel investors, as well as new venture workshops that are really networking opportunities.

If there's a university nearby and it has an entrepreneurship program (no matter how formative), it's worthwhile to call someone on the teaching staff, make an appointment and sit down with him or her to see how the program can help you find investors. If you have a choice of universities nearby and you want to determine which has the top program, buy a copy of a study that was published in The Journal of Business Venturing called "Measuring Progress in Entrepreneurship Education" by Elsevier Science. Call (800)282-2720 for a reprint of this article, which appeared in Volume 12, Issue 5 of the publication. The cost is approximately $44.

This article was originally published in the June 1999 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Highway To Heaven.