Brown’s growing student entrepreneurship landscape has begun catching the attention of some of Silicon Valley’s most well-known investors.
Several notable venture capital firms — including Pear VC and Y Combinator — have recently increased their presence at Brown through student fellows and campus events, receiving enthusiasm from student founders.
Students interested in scaling their businesses typically secure investments through several rounds of fundraising. While Brown founders often seek initial financial support from grants offered by the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship — which awards up to $25,000 in funding — third-party venture capital firms are giving some startups the funding they need to grow even faster.
Pear VC, a California venture firm focused on companies in earlier stages of development, hosted their first information session at Brown this fall. During the event, Pear VC Partner Harris Stolzenberg promoted PearX — Pear VC’s 12-week start-up accelerator.
PearX offers pre-seed founders up to $2 million in funding, personalized mentorship and full-time support staff in San Francisco to build their ventures. Y Combinator, another notable Silicon Valley accelerator, recently accepted four Brunonians into their fall 2025 batch, The Herald previously reported.
“You’re seeing more and more that young people — students — can create category-defining companies,” Stolzenberg said.
Pear VC previously collaborated closely with students from Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley. But Stolzenberg, based in Boston, is now working to expand Pear VC’s reach to East Coast schools.
“There are good builders across the East Coast, and Brown was one of those schools we wanted to spend some time at,” Stolzenberg said, acknowledging the recent success of Figma, a web design tool founded by former Brown students.
PearX’s fall event saw a “massive turnout” with nearly 100 students, according to Stolzenberg. Pear VC student fellow Everest Yang ’26.5 was excited by the enthusiasm. Leading up to the event, about 20 eager student founders pitched their startups to him, Yang recalled.
“It was really awesome to see,” Stolzenberg said. “I think there will be a lot of companies started from Brown, going forward.”
Many other venture capital funds — including Contrary, Dorm Room Fund and Anthos Capital — have student fellows at Brown, who serve as liaisons between the entrepreneurship community on campus and fund partners.
Serena Saxena ’27 is the vice president of communications for Van Wickle Ventures, a student venture fund at Brown, and currently works as a consumer scout for Anthos Capital.
As a student scout, Saxena primarily interacts with startups at early stages, “sourcing founders, identifying trends and honing my eye for market inflection points,” she wrote in a message to The Herald. “I spend most of my time speaking with founders and understanding how they think about the world they’re building in.”
Inspired to explore venture capital after founding her own startup, Saxena saw the field “not just as a financing mechanism, but as a system that shapes who gets to build the future,” she wrote.
“Venture capital is traditionally a pretty black-box industry, and I became eager to unlock it,” she added, noting that she was motivated by the fact that companies founded by women receive less venture capital funding.
When meeting with founders at Brown, Saxena has noticed that Brown student startups are focused less on growing their business as quickly as possible and more on “thoughtful creation,” she wrote. “Brown students approach entrepreneurship with curiosity, social awareness and collaboration, which leads to ideas that feel a lot more grounded.”
In addition to seeking out global venture funds, many students turn to the Brown community’s strong network of investors for financing.
To date, Van Wickle Ventures has sourced over 700 Brown-founded companies and invested in a portfolio of 13 startups, according to their website. After students conduct due diligence on potential investment opportunities, the club consults an alumni investment committee before writing checks. These funds, which range from $25,000 to $50,000, are financed by Brown’s endowment.
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According to Co-Director of Van Wickle Ventures Sunav Nambiar ’26, the group’s affiliation with Brown is a core part of its operating model. Nambiar explained that receiving funding from Brown’s endowment can lend credibility to a newer startup.
Nambiar also appreciates the support of the alums on the investment committee, he said. “One of the more valuable parts about our club is asking these very accomplished people what debates they would have about companies, and then comparing that to the debates which we’re having.”
