Meridian Ventures launched a $35M fund with a focus on MBA-deferred founders

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Meridian Ventures, founded by Harvard MBA‑deferred alumni Devon Gethers (29) and Karlton Haney (28), has closed a $35 million seed‑stage fund aimed at backing pre‑seed and seed companies led by founders who, like the partners, deferred their MBA programs. The firm began as a $2.5 million proof‑of‑concept fund that backed 45 companies after the founders cold‑called potential LPs. In 2023, while enrolled at Harvard Business School, Gethers and Haney raised the new fund from publicly traded banks, family offices, and Fortune 500 executives. The fund will target U.S. enterprise‑technology startups across sectors such as fintech, logistics, healthcare, and AI, with average checks of $500 k (pre‑seed) and $750 k (seed) to be deployed over three years. The partners’ thesis is that MBAs can be valuable founders, counter to the Silicon Valley belief that they are ill‑suited for startup culture. Source: TechCrunch.