Despite the startup boom here in St. Louis, many entrepreneurs still dream of going west to Silicon Valley, the birthplace and home of so many famous tech startups. According to a news release from the Washington University Tech Entrepreneurs and Venture Capital (wute.vc) student group, an alum is making it possible for student ‘treps to spend some time in the valley. Here’s the scoop:
“Blake Marggraff, a rising junior at Washington University in St. Louis, has taken his real-time crowd polling startup Packsay to San Francisco this summer for an unprecedented opportunity.
He will be the pilot participant in a new startup accelerator open to all Washington University undergraduates, called wu-start@OpenDNS. Students accepted to this program are invited to house their startups in the office of San Francisco technology company, OpenDNS.
In addition to free office space, students will have access to successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs for advice and counsel. The program will be administered through wute.vc, a Washington University organization aimed at fostering an entrepreneurial ecosystem on campus.
This program was developed by OpenDNS founder and CEO David Ulevitch, who graduated from Washington University in 2004 with a degree in anthropology. In addition to supporting the university’s entrepreneurial efforts through programs like wu-start@ OpenDNS, Ulevitch serves on the Washington University Alumni Board of Governors and the San Francisco Regional Committee for the university’s $2.2 billion Leading Together campaign.
OpenDNS is the world’s largest, fastest-growing DNS service provider. Through innovative uses of DNS, the company provides free parental controls, phishing protection, and other advanced services for consumers and network administrators. OpenDNS also provides an enterprise service, which includes malware protection, delegated administration, and block page bypass, in addition to DNS and Web content filtering.
Contact: Desmond Duggan, Director, wute.vc”
Photo credit: IntelFreePress, Bar at Buck’s, Hangout of Silicon Valley Venture Capital Dealmakers
