Word has it today that Jawed Karim, who Alexander Haislip at PEHub describes as “the often overlooked co-founder of YouTube,” has put together a venture investment group called Youniversity Ventures. It’s purported focus: early-stage startups.
It is said that the new VC fund will be “founder friendly.” With messages being passed around the startup world concerning seemingly unfair pressures and disadvantages associated with financing terms for fledging ventures (see: thefunded), such a tag line may prove attractive to new companies looking for backing without having to sign off large percentages of stock/ownership or agree to otherwise unfavorable terms. Of course, as the old adage goes, the proof is in the pudding. We’ll have to wait and see whether Karim and partners Kevin Hartz and Keith Rabois can live up to such a claim - albeit an unofficial one.
So far, Youniversity has not registered as a VC firm with the SEC or the state of California, where it is based. A look back at the histories of Karim & Co shows the YouTube co-founder as a member of the PayPal workforce, where he associated with Chad Hurley and Steven Chen prior to launching the video site. Mr Hartz’s resume lists him as a co-founder Xoom Corp and Eventbrite (a service who we’ve used to organize event registration), while Rabois touts a vice presidency of business development at Slide, a Web widget business founded by Max Levchin, an individual who just so happens to be a former CTO of PayPal. Small world, huh?
Youniversity’s first openly-disclosed financial investment is BluBet, a company that offers users a platform through which to “make non-monetary bets on a variety of off-the-wall subjects.” Youniversity, along with Flixster CEO Joe Greenstein, have put $225,000 into BluBet thus far.
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