Brian Nichols is the co-founder of Angel Squad, a community where you’ll learn how to angel invest and get a chance to invest as little as $1k into Hustle Fund's top performing early-stage startups

The University of Utah runs one of the world's largest student-led venture capital funds. Students there make real investment decisions with actual money. Not simulations. Not case studies. Real capital into real companies.

Since 2001, these students have been learning what works and what doesn't before they even graduate. Some schools teach finance through textbooks. Others put students in the hot seat where they have to decide: is this company worth backing?

This matters more than most people realize.

The Old Guard vs. The New Path

Traditional venture capital required three things: elite networks, lucky breaks, and years of apprenticeship. You needed to know someone who knew someone. You needed to be at the right cocktail party when a GP mentioned they were hiring. You needed to spend years as an analyst before anyone let you near a real investment decision.

That model is cracking open.

University venture funds are training students who'd never break into traditional VC. Schools from Arkansas to Nebraska to Illinois are giving undergrads and grad students hands-on experience evaluating deals, building portfolios, and learning the machinery of early-stage investing.

The pattern is clear across these programs. Students get decision-making authority. They source deals from alumni networks and local startup ecosystems. They sit through pitch meetings, run due diligence, debate valuations, and vote on investments. When companies in their portfolio fail (and they do), students see exactly why. When companies succeed, they understand what actually drove that success versus what the founders said in their pitch deck.

This is not theoretical learning. It's the real thing.

What Makes These Programs Actually Work

Not all university venture funds are created equal. The best ones share specific characteristics.

First, they give students actual authority. The worst programs are basically stock picking clubs where students make recommendations and adults make the real decisions. That's not venture capital. The good programs let students own the outcomes, both wins and losses.

Second, they expose students to the harsh math of portfolio construction. Most investments will fail. A few will return 2-3x. One or two might return 10x+. Students learn viscerally why VCs are obsessed with outliers and why "pretty good" returns don't matter at seed stage.

Third, they connect students to real founder networks. Alumni who started companies. Local entrepreneurs raising rounds. Regional accelerators and incubators. Students aren't evaluating cold applications from strangers—they're building relationships and learning to assess founders as people, not just as pitch decks.

Hustle Fund saw this shift early and leaned into it. Their Emerging Founder School specifically targets underestimated students who have the skills but lack networks. The program connects participants directly with Hustle Fund's investment team and gives access to over 2,000 angel investors through Angel Squad.

Elizabeth Yin, co-founder of Hustle Fund, built her career understanding how opaque and gatekept the venture world was. "There are so many ways to create your own path," she's said about breaking into VC. University venture funds are creating one of those paths at scale.

The Compounding Benefits

The ecosystem effects compound over time in ways that aren't obvious at first.

Alumni from these programs graduate with track records. They've made 5, 10, 15 investment decisions. They understand cap tables, option pools, and pro rata rights. They can speak the language. When they apply to venture firms, they're not starting from zero.

Some go work at established funds. Others start their own. Many become sophisticated angel investors who write small checks but bring real value. All of them stay connected to their university programs as mentors, deal sources, and later-stage capital.

The universities benefit too. Student and faculty-led startups now have a built-in funding source. Research coming out of labs has a clearer path to commercialization. The regional startup ecosystem gets stronger because there's more smart capital available.

One thing we've learned: geography matters less than it used to. University venture funds in smaller markets often find better deals than coastal funds swimming in competition. A talented founder at University of Arkansas or University of Nebraska might not get noticed by Sand Hill Road, but they'll get noticed by their school's venture fund. Those are often great investments that others miss.

The Infrastructure Is Already Here

The timing for university venture funds couldn't be better. The infrastructure that makes them viable now exists in ways it didn't 10 years ago.

Platforms like AngelList make it easy to syndicate deals and manage cap tables. The SEC has relaxed some accredited investor requirements, making it easier for funds to take on more LPs. Information about startups is more accessible—you don't need elite deal flow to find good companies anymore.

University venture funds plug students directly into this existing machinery. They're not building from scratch. They're teaching students to use tools that already work, within networks that already exist.

The bottleneck was never infrastructure. It was access. These programs solve for access.

What This Means for the Broader Ecosystem

The rise of university venture funds represents something bigger than just educational programs. It's fundamentally changing who gets to become an investor.

Venture capital has historically been one of the least diverse industries in finance. The people making investment decisions tended to look similar, come from similar schools, and have similar backgrounds. University venture funds are creating pathways for people who don't fit that mold.

Students from state schools are getting the same training that used to be reserved for ivy league graduates with family connections. First-generation college students are learning to evaluate startups. International students are building relationships with American founders and investors.

This diversity in who becomes an investor eventually creates diversity in who gets funded. Different investors notice different opportunities. They back different founders. They see potential in markets and models that traditional VCs miss.

The flywheel is just starting to spin. Students trained in university venture funds become angels, scouts, associates, and eventually GPs. They mentor the next cohort. They start companies that need funding. They become the deal sources for others.

The Real Test

The thing about university venture funds that most people miss is their success isn't measured in how many students they place at top-tier VC firms. That's too narrow.

The real measure is how many students graduate understanding that angel investing is accessible. That you can write $1K checks and build a portfolio. That you can become an investor without waiting for someone to give you permission.

That mental shift matters more than any single investment decision. It changes career trajectories. It changes how people think about building wealth. It changes who participates in startup ecosystems.

University venture funds are proving that venture capital doesn't require elite credentials. It requires training, repetition, and access to deals. Those things can be taught. Those things can be democratized.

If you're a student interested in venture capital, look for these programs at your school. If they don't exist, start one. The infrastructure is there. The playbooks are available. The only thing missing is someone willing to do the work.

And if you're past your university days but want to learn how to angel invest, programs like Angel Squad exist for exactly that reason. The same frameworks that university venture funds teach their students,  construction, founder evaluation, deal diligence, apply whether you're 22 or 52.