Young ‘Net veterans take start-ups to school

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You hear it all the time: ‘It’s not about the money.’ But with the Youniversity Ventures guys, that’s about as true a statement as you’re going to find -- at least when venture capital is involved.

Jawed Karim, Keith Rabois and Kevin Hartz are young. They’re rich. And they’ve been around the block a few times, helping create companies that changed the world (maybe you’ve heard of YouTube and PayPal?). But instead of moving to Sun Valley to ski full-time or opening a fancy firm on Sand Hill Road, which is to VCs what Madison Avenue is to advertisers, the Youniversity Ventures crew is holding office hours at Stanford University and teaching fledgling start-ups how to hit it big through a relentless focus on products and users. If they hold promise, Youniversity Ventures will invest.

It’s an art, not a science, as evidenced by their decision in 2001 to not pursue an acquisition of Google. Read the full story to find out why they passed, and to learn more about what motivates these guys to teach Entrepreneurism 101.

-- Chris Gaither