Investing in Students with Jamie Macfarlane, founder & CEO of Creator Fund

Entrepreneur Talks by STATION F

Jamie Macfarlane is the founder & CEO of Creator Fund, an early-stage VC fund that invests in student-led companies with student investment partners.

Having studied both in the UK and in the USA, he started Creator Fund based on the observation that some of the world's most successful technology companies —like Facebook and Google— have been started in the dorm rooms and laboratories of American universities. Europe has universities of equal caliber but these have not yet managed to spin out as many tech champions. With the Creator Fund, Jamie hopes to support more student-led innovation and the creation of tech-driven companies across the continent. To do so, he has also designed a very unique student-focused model.

In this episode, we talk to Jamie to learn more about how their model works, what are some of the most exciting companies currently being built in universities across Europe, and what Europe can do to encourage more DeepTech companies.

Topics:

00:23 — Introduction with Cindy Yang

01:07 — How Jamie first started investing in students

02:29 — Creator Fund's investment model (and its secret sauce 🌶)

03:50 — How they recruit their student investment partners

05:02 — Why they're not called "ambassadors" or "scouts"

07:16 — The difference between investing in students in the US vs. in Europe

08:20 — What Creator Fund looks for in companies

12:16 — The advantage of getting investment from Creator Fund: talent network and follow-on investment

15:34 — The ideal founding team and the example of Touchlab

19:56 — Trends and companies that Jamie is excited about: Baseimmune and RecyclEye

23:44 — The technology behind vaccine company Baseimmune

28:10 — The limits to Creator Fund's investment model

31:44 — How IP works in universities

33:16 — What Europe can do to encourage more DeepTech companies

37:00 — Jamie's piece of advice for student entrepreneurs

This episode is hosted and produced by Cindy Yang. Art is by Gaëtan Lefebvre.

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