The next evolution of the WSWs program is a hands-on, fund managing experience for university students, the E3 Innovation Fund. E3 Stands for “Educate, Earn and Empower”, all of which we plan to accomplish with every student enrolled in our new program. This is a private equity fund that we are raising to train university students from inner cities about dynamics and intricacies involved in managing a fund, while generating market returns by investing in women and minority entrepreneurs.
We have a partnership with the University Venture Fund who has an eight year track record investing funds and training university students from Brigham Young and the University of Utah. We have also excitedly completed the first module of our in-class curriculum with Stanford University.
Ultimately, E3 seeks to increase the racial diversity in the realms of private equity, venture capital, finance, and entrepreneurship. We are addressing the problem that people of color generally do not access money from Venture Capital firms for their own companies, and they do not largely work in the financial industry.
The E3 program will address the under-representation of people of color and women in private equity and venture capital, by educating college students from low-income communities about these sectors through a rigorous academic training program in conjunction with the students’ investment of a real private equity fund to gain real world investment experience. Because the students will be investing money in real companies, the program also has the broader effect of empowering the wealth of talent among entrepreneurs who are generally unable to access funds to grow their businesses.