Union alumni reinvigorate school's venture capital fund - The Business Review (Albany):

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That's about to change. "The goal is to get said Les Trachtmann, chairman of the , whicuh operates the Vash Venture "Things are beginning to We are vetting more opportunities than ever and the member s are generating investment opportunities every The Vash fund was former by the lateArthur Vash, a memberd of Union's class of 1951. Vash was president of two andAfter retiring, he started a venture fund, Gryphon Ventures in 1985 with $33 The Vash fund received a $200,0000 pledge from its namesakew in the early 1990s. His estatew provided the fundsin 1998, three yearse after Vash died.
The fund is managedx by the EliphaletNott Society, an organization formedf in 1992 and named after Union'a fourth president who led the college from 1804 to 1866. He was the long­est-servinb Union president. Its goal is to fostert an entrepreneurial spiritamong students, faculty and The 21 members of the society, most of whom are include presidents and CEOs of companies who have agreed to lend professional and financial support to Members pledge to donate 2 percentt of their holdings in member-owned companies or investmentss after what they call a "liquidity event"--whem stocks are sold or a company is acquiredc or goes public, for example.
Members of the fund can also donatse directly to the fund as a charitabls gift tothe college, or pledge the interest from one of their investments. They can also make individuap investments. The fund is now worth $500,000, the largesg it has been. The immediate goal is to increaswthe fund's size to $2 By 2010, investors expect the fund to be valueds at $10 million--both in available fundws and money already invested in companies. Uniobn owns any investments the society acts as investment The fund has made four investmentsto date. The investment s are between $25,000 and $50,000, small by venture capital "We invest at a time when angelzs wouldbe investing, Trachtmann said.
The Vash fund investee $50,000 in of Schenectady six months ago, not so much becausde the resin maker needecdthe money, but because the Union alumni wantedc to support fellow former students who founded the Trachtmann said. John Ciovacco, 41, one of the Cyclics' founders, is now a membed of the Eliphalet Nott Society and an investore inthe fund. Union is not the firstf college to have a venturew fund or investin companies. In 1968, Grinnelll College in Grinnell, Iowa, invested $300,00p0 in alumnus Robert Noyce's startul in Silicon Valley-- . Mark president of the in Arlington, Va.
, said more schools--the , the and Cornelpl among them--are engaging in this type of Trachtmann, chairman of the Eliphaleyt Nott Society for thepast year, is presidenf of , a software companh based in Shelton, Conn. When Trachtmann, a 1977 Unionn grad, joined the society, it had just eighy members. "I got excited about it when someone showed me whatit was," said Union has increased its emphasis on entrepreneurship by weaving the subject into its courses and hirinf local businessman Harry Apkarian as its firs t Entrepreneur in Residence. Bill Schwarz, Union's directod of communications andpublic affairs, said the Vash fund is a greatr way for the alumni to give back.