A venture capital fund launched earlier this year by three former SDSU grads pledged part of its equity profits to the SDSU Foundation.
The Aztec Venture Network, with $3 million in committed capital, is focused on emerging technology companies.
“This is small by venture capital standards, but we are focusing on early stage companies that are not quite ready for traditional venture capital,” said Joe Sullivan, one of the fund’s three “angels,” and a founding director of SDSU’s Entrepreneurial Management Center.
The fund’s two other main angels, Bob Cerasoli and Bob Watkins, head up a group of 30 private investors in the fund.
The fund intends to make the most of its SDSU connections, providing seed capital and expertise to new enterprises that emerge from SDSU’s Research Center and Entrepreneurial Management Center, as well as other new businesses.
Sullivan is a founder and retired executive of Flextronics International Ltd., a San Jose public high-tech manufacturing firm. Watkins is chairman of R.J. Watkins & Co., a San Diego executive search firm; and Cerasoli, a former advertising executive, is chief strategic officer of FirstWorld Communications, a Denver-based data/telecommunications/Internet provider.
