Ivy League Successful Entrepreneurs

Ivy League Successful Entrepreneurs October 28, 2012 These four Yale men are totally unrelated to our story. But three other Yale graduates just secured a fifteen million dollar investment in their company from Andreesen Horowitz. We always like to highlight Ivy League successful entrepreneurs   especially since a Princeton professor claimed last year that successful entrepreneurs dont graduate from Ivy League schools. We beg to differ. A little while back, we highlighted Dartmouth alumnus Mike Hartwick, who founded an exercise machine that essentially mimics surfing (inside). He went on ABCs Shark Tank and secured Mark Cuban as an investor. The guys five years out of college and he already has billionaire mogul Mark Cuban as a business partner. Pretty cool, eh? For $350,000, Cuban now owns 30% of his company. Today, wed like to highlight the company of three Yale University graduates Mahbod Moghadam, Ilan Zechory, and Tom Lehman. Moghadam is a lawyer, Zechory a Google project manager, and Lehman an engineer. Together, they founded Rap Genius. Rap Genius essentially provides explanations about rap lyrics. Yes, you read that right. The three co-founders have secured an investment from VC firm Andreesen Horowitz (yes Mark Andreesenthe creator of Netscape Navigator who even happens to have significant equity in major Hollywood talent agency William Morris Endeavor, among many other ventures). And how big is the investment? To the tune of fifteen million. Wrote Andreesen, First, there is the undeniable, irrepressable phenomenon that Rap Genius already is – the definitive online community of rap aficionados; one of the fastest growing web sites in Y Combinators history; a thriving ecosystem of ideas, artists, and fans. Second, there is the stellar team. Rap Genius has the rare balance you always hope for in a startup team – three founders, each with unique skills, who mesh perfectly. Mahbod is the most brilliant community creator weve seen since Caterina Fakes heyday at Flickr. CEO Tom shares Jeff Bezoss D.E. Shaw pedigree and codes up a storm. And former Deadwood writer Ilan serves as impresario and runs the show. We wish them much success. Although we do have one fact check that were wondering about. There is no record of Mr. Zechory ever having written for Deadwood on either IMDB or StudioSystem. In fact, he graduated from Yale in 2006. Deadwood went off the air in 2006. Maybe he was an intern in college? We hope this isnt why Mr. Andreesen made his fifteen million dollar investment (although were sure its not).