Originally published in听Carroll Capital, the print publication of the Carroll School of Management at Boston College. .
In 2009, Tom Coburn 鈥�13 was a freshman in Shaw House, studying
biology and theology with an eye toward medical school. His roommates were excited about what was then called 51茶馆 VC, a venture capital competition offered through the Carroll School of Management, and they convinced Coburn to participate with them in the听competition. Their idea, for a medical device company, didn鈥檛 win, but Coburn was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug.听
Tom Coburn '13
He continued to brainstorm ideas, and one day at Logan Airport, as he stared up at the television screens in the terminal, Coburn realized that he was ignoring the ads. 鈥淚 started wondering, 鈥榃hat if we could attach questions to ads to make sure you were paying attention? And then pay people for getting the answers right, and only charge the businesses if you got the answer right,鈥欌�� says Coburn.听
The next year, he entered the 51茶馆 VC with the idea for that business, called Jebbit, and tied for first place. One of the judges was Peter Bell 鈥�86, P 鈥�20, 鈥�25, who told him about a summer accelerator program for college startups at Highland Capital Partners, where Bell worked at the time. 鈥淭hat program changed the trajectory of my life,鈥� says Coburn. He dropped his plan for medical school and ran with Jebbit, which today employs 100 people and works with premier brands like the NFL and L鈥橭real.
Then he came up with another idea. 鈥淚 went to Peter and said, 鈥榃hy don鈥檛 we do a summer accelerator just for 51茶馆 students?鈥欌�� Together with Miguel Galvez, MCAS 鈥�12, they launched as a nonprofit accelerator program for that purpose. Ten years later, SSC has become a fixture of Boston College鈥檚 entrepreneurial community, which revolves around the Edmund H. Shea Jr. Center for Entrepreneurship and its daily programming. More recently, SSC added venture capital to its offerings, pivoting to for-profit status. It also opened up its accelerator to Boston College alumni and staff.
SSC鈥檚 general partners (GPs) take no salary but participate in funding decisions and mentorship and receive a portion of fund earning. They "care deeply about 51茶馆 and paying it forward to听younger generations of people within the 51茶馆 community,鈥� says Christina Quinn 鈥�13, one of the GPs and a founder of Lua, an early-stage startup consultancy. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very reflective of the broader sentiment you see with 51茶馆 alumni鈥攖hat sense of camaraderie and care for fellow Eagles.鈥�
SSC general parters with participants of the accelorator program.
Ted Wind 鈥�25 and Dan Biundo, MCAS 鈥�25, participated in the听summer accelerator program after sophomore year for their business Socion, a software platform in the influencer marketing space. 鈥淲e entered the accelerator in a kind of fog,鈥� Wind recalls. 鈥淲here should we go with the business? Where do we start? But right from the beginning, we had help.鈥� They tapped into SSC鈥檚 robust mentoring network, and this year, the two juniors landed their first customers. The business continues to grow.听
Through SSC, alumni and other investors have made 96 investments in Boston College startups to the tune of $5 million altogether. Forty-three percent of those startups had diverse founders, who are otherwise 鈥渨oefully underrepresented in the venture capital industry,鈥� Quinn says, noting that less than 2 percent of all venture capital goes to women and minorities. But she adds that SSC has been intentional about "welcoming and nuturing diverse founders."听
SSC鈥檚 general partners Christina Quinn 鈥�13, Tom Coburn 鈥�13, and Duncan Walker 鈥�13 (not pictured: Peter Bell '86, P '20, '25).
One of them, Lurein Perera, MCAS 鈥�21, went from the Shea Center鈥檚 spring accelerator to SSC鈥檚 summer accelerator. After those experiences, he came up with the idea for GiveCard, which provides a cash-transfer solution with no fees for the end user. Perera drew a six-figure investment in GiveCard from SSC two years ago and was introduced to other investors who added to the pot. 鈥淭ens of thousands of people in the US are using GiveCard today,鈥� says Perera. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e getting meals, hotel stays, and paying for education. To have had that kind of impact is really cool.鈥�
SSC provides $10,000 in funding to each accelerator startup, and the successful businesses that have emerged from the program 鈥渁re as diverse as its founders,鈥� says Duncan Walker 鈥�13, CTO of music marketing firm Heard (which went through the accelerator) and an SSC GP. He points to companies ranging from Viv, which makes sustainable period care products, and Kured, a charcuterie board company with stores in New York and Boston, to Fisherman, which produces restaurant websites.
All of this fits seamlessly into Boston College鈥檚 entrepreneurial ecosystem, says Jere Doyle, the Popolo Family Executive Director of the Shea Center, explaining that many of Shea鈥檚 speakers, mentors, and competition judges come from SSC. 鈥淚t鈥檚 natural for a Shea student to look to SSC when it鈥檚 time to take next steps.鈥澨�
The team invites anyone interested in SSC to contact partners@sscventurepartners.com.
