Contrary at Michigan wants you to work on that side-project idea you've always had...
We're also excited to announce an upcoming chat with Wellnest CEO Tommy Searle and CMO Mars Hovasse!
V1 is the premier community for student-led entrepreneurship at the University of Michigan.
A few quick announcements
Hey! 👋 Before we dive into today's newsletter, just wanted to let you know that V1 has some very exciting news that we'll be announcing tomorrow 👀 Keep an eye out for an email! If you’re bold, take a guess and reply to this email!
In the meantime, Contrary at Michigan has a brand new initiative for student founders! Keep reading to learn more :)
Contrary at Michigan is excited to announce Ship it Michigan 🚢 — a semester-long micro-fund to accelerate your side-project ideas! Over the course of the next few months, you'll have the opportunity to:
Receive micro-grants to fund your project 💵
Gain resources, community, and accountability to succeed 📈
Show off at our Demo Day at the end of the semester 🚢
If you have ideas but haven't gotten around to working on them, this is the time to start. No experience necessary. This special opportunity is open to all students at Michigan.
Join us on February 11th at 7 PM EST to learn more about the Contrary Micro-fund — Ship it Michigan 🚢 — and network with other student builders.
Upcoming V1 Events
Exciting news for Tuesday! Join us tomorrow, February 9th, @ 9 PM for our V1 Fireside Chat with Wellnest CEO Tommy Searle and CMO Mars Hovasse 🤩
Wellnest has reached over 5,000 users and is on an upward trajectory! We've included a short video below explaining Wellnest in more detail, if you're interested! Stop by to hear from Tommy and Mars on their entrepreneurial journey, fundraising, wellness and more! As an added bonus, the entire Wellnest founding team are recent Michigan alums. 〽️
While you're here, add our calendar here to get all the latest updates about the event.
V1 Michigan Recap (Jan 31st - Feb 6th)
If you couldn’t make it to last week’s events, you’re in luck! We’ve summed them up below!
Creators on Maker Monday took a break last week, but we'll be back this week ☻
Last Tuesday, V1 hosted Alex Lieberman, Michigan Alumnus and CEO of the Morning Brew, for an awesome Q & A session! Topics ranged from the benefits of starting a business in college to how to reach a responsive audience for products. We also got to see an inside look into Morning Brew's strategy and how they decide when to launch new products! 🤯
V1 member, Abdullah, was kind enough to take notes on a few key takeaways! Also make sure to check out a recording of the event + the twitter recap!!
Member spotlight — Allison Chang
Allison, a recent Michigan grad, is one of our most active members on Discord! Allison's valuable insights and feedback to student founders during Maker Mondays and her contribution to the community doesn't go unnoticed! V1 is stronger because of her and we couldn't be luckier to have her! 💞
Opportunities
If you're a student founder, you definitely won't want to miss out on this opportunity!
Pear Competition for student startups!
Pear VC is hosting a Pear Competition where they will give winners a $25K uncapped SAFE to help launch their startup. 15+ teams are expected to win! Apply here by March 22nd to be considered!
No idea is too early to be considered. They are simply looking for dedicated founders with big ambitions! If you have any questions, reach out to Ian Taylor !
That’s all for today’s newsletter but if you have any specific requests of what you’d like to see in future editions, any ideas for the V1 Community, want to contribute to the newsletter, or any thoughts at all please reach out to us via email or DM us on Twitter!
And if you’ve read all this and still aren’t in the Discord community, what’s holding you back? Join here!