Meridian Ventures launched a $35 million [1] second fund on Friday to support pre-seed and seed-stage companies founded by entrepreneurs who deferred their MBA programs [2].
This initiative targets a specific pipeline of high-potential talent, individuals who have secured admission to top business schools but chosen to build companies instead. By providing early capital to this group, the firm aims to bridge the gap between academic preparation and venture-backed execution in the enterprise technology sector.
Founded by Devon Gethers and Karlton Haney, the firm focuses its investment strategy on startups based in the U.S. [3]. The new fund is designed to provide critical early-stage capital to founders who are leveraging their deferred status to launch scalable businesses [2].
While the fund prioritizes enterprise technology, the firm maintains a broad approach to the specific industries these companies inhabit. "Meridian is agnostic," Gethers said [4].
This second fund [2] follows the firm's initial efforts to identify and back a unique class of founders. By focusing on the pre-seed and seed stages, Meridian Ventures seeks to enter the capitalization table early, providing the necessary runway for founders to prove their business models before pursuing larger institutional rounds [1].
The strategy relies on the premise that the vetting process of elite MBA programs serves as a preliminary filter for founder quality. This allows the venture firm to target a concentrated pool of talent with a proven track record of academic and professional achievement [3].
“Meridian is agnostic”
This fund highlights a growing trend in venture capital to target 'pre-filtered' talent pools. By focusing on MBA-deferred founders, Meridian Ventures is essentially outsourcing a portion of its due diligence to the admissions committees of top-tier business schools, betting that the traits required for admission correlate with the resilience and skill needed for early-stage entrepreneurship.
