Our thinking was, there should be an accessible, student-friendly way to get capital and mentorship in building a community of peer founders. I noticed that all of the teams we’d been mentoring on campus often needed a little bit of capital but had to rely on business plan competitions, checks from friends and family, or ended up raising a round of funding and dropping out.
My senior year, I felt like I had time for one more project to help my peers and help the startup ecosystem. When I was gathering students together late night to work on startups, GC would help plug in notable local founders as speakers or mentors (and buy the pizza!). They are dedicated to helping amazing young people who are passionate about computer science and starting companies. They were instrumental to the work I was doing at Harvard even before Rough Draft. PB: I got to know the team at General Catalyst, as I became involved in the Boston startup community. NS: Tell me about starting Rough Draft Ventures. I’m addicted to working on projects that add value to other people’s lives. I loved Skillshare’s mission behind education, learning skills and teaching skills. Some of the best advice I have received came from one of my mentors, Chris Sacca, who told me the best way to spend my time was supporting a founder or CEO that really inspires me. PB: I met the CEO of Skillshare through my friend Rob Go at Boston-based VC firm NextView Ventures and was super-charged by him. NS: How did you end up at Skillshare and what kept you there for all of your roles with the company?
That would have been a story in and of itself, but I ended up joining their team. I met the VP of Business Development of Bad Boy Entertainment at a business plan competition and he invited me to visit the office.
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PB: I spend a lot of time thinking about how to engineer serendipity and my time at Bad Boy was a great lesson in that. NS: You worked at Bad Boy Entertainment, a major media and entertainment company founded by Sean “Diddy” Combs.
It’s not enough for me to just pursue things that are self-fulfilling I strive to build things that help others by changing the set of resources that they’re able to access. When I’ve built something that changes even one or two people’s lives, it gives me incredible energy. PB: Working on these initiatives and programs has personally been insanely fulfilling. NS: How do or did you keep up with it all? What motivates you? HackHarvard allowed me to connect amazing people from around Boston: founders, VCs, alumni CEOs, and contribute to the success of some of these companies that started out as projects. We brought the flavors of an accelerator program into the university environment. This is the energy I wanted to foster at Harvard.Īt Harvard, my friends and I started HackHarvard, a student organization to provide mentorship and guidance for CS majors. When you’re figuring it out with other people, however, these challenges become a source of excitement and inspiration. Pursuing an idea comes with a lot of risk, and navigating these challenges alone can make it feel incredibly lonely. Organizations like New York City Night Owls foster community among people that work full-time jobs by day and moonlight as entrepreneurs. Peter Boyce: I was inspired by the New York entrepreneurial ecosystem and how close-knit the community is. When did you first realize you were interested in VC? Nina Stepanov: Tell me about your background. The support from General Catalyst and his team has given students around the country the opportunity to connect, learn, and build the next generation of student-led startups. Nowadays, Peter is building startup communities for student founders and investors in Boston and New York through Rough Draft Ventures. His driving force? The opportunity to help others achieve. After launching HackHarvard and co-founding Harvard Ventures, Peter co-founded Rough Draft Ventures with help from General Catalyst. A well known figure in the Boston entrepreneurship community, Peter Boyce, often referred to as PB2, has been building communities around startups since high school.
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