The competition for startup talent just got more intense. Texas seed fund G51 Capital has partnered with Silicon Valley hyper-networker Larry Chiang to find promising startup founders at Stanford University.

“We’re building a farm team of CS [computer science] and engineering majors and helping them to learn to be CEOs,” says Rudy Garza, founder and managing partner of G51, which is based in Austin, Texas.

G51, which raised $10.5 million in June for its fourth fund, hasn’t committed a specific dollar amount to the effort. The total amount invested will depend entirely on the quality of each deal, Garza says. In general, G51 does seed rounds of $500,000 to $1 million.

“We’re testing out this model, and if it goes well with Stanford, there is an opportunity to expand it within Stanford and beyond,” Garza says.

For his part, Chiang says that the fund will be called the “Larry Chiang Stanford G51 Fund of Stanford Founders” and that Garza has committed $1.5 million.

Garza

Garza

Chiang

Chiang

Asked if Chiang was serious about the kooky name, Garza laughed and recounted how he met Chiang four years ago at South by Southwest in Austin. Chiang struck up a conversation and a few minutes later had talked Garza into giving him his cell phone number. Garza recalls that Chiang then turned to a group of entrepreneurs and said, “See how easy it is to get a VC’s cell phone number!”

They kept in touch and a couple of years later Chiang invited Garza to speak at a Meetup event in Austin. Garza was impressed that Chiang “pulled together 45 to 50 entrepreneurs on a moment’s notice.”

Chiang then suggested that G51 should do a “pop-up incubator” at the most recent South by Southwest. Once again, the results were positive, Garza says.

After G51 raised its latest fund, Chiang said Garza should “carve out some capital for a Stanford fund, and I said it made sense,” Garza says. “I think what we’ll find is that this is an interesting model not just for Stanford but for other institutions.”

Chiang is founder of Duck9, a startup that offers to teach college students improve their credit scores. He is also author of the book “What They Don’t Teach You At Stanford Business School.”

Related posts:

  1. North Bridge Venture Partners Hosting $75K Stanford Seed Capital Competition
  2. Mike Moritz Chats Cali Economy with John Chiang
  3. Allen Stanford Receiver Wants To Hire PE Firm
  4. Edmund Chiang Joins Moelis Cap Markets Team
  5. Stanford Bids Due Today; How Much Will Stanford Get?

Tags: , , ,