Master of Business Administration students at Loyola University New Orleans watched as months of research transformed into reality Tuesday night, when South Coast Angel Fund announced its first investment of $500,000 in Omnicademy, a social networking platform that enables universities and colleges to syndicate their courses with one another. The MBA students have been researching and advising the angel fund on potential lucrative investment opportunities, including Omnicademy, and this week’s investment was the culmination of months of due diligence and financial analysis.
The real life investment experience in the MBA program’s Entrepreneurial Consulting course offers students a unique opportunity to play a part in the investment exploration process. The course was created last year by Brett Matherne, Ph.D., in conjunction with Loyola graduate and South Coast Angel Fund Managing Director Clayton White, MBA ’93, J.D. ’07, as the next step in the development of entrepreneurship initiatives at Loyola.
The students in the course participate in all aspects of South Coast Angel Fund’s investment process and perform the due diligence review for prospective investments that advance through South Coast’s investment process. “Our students have consistently stepped up to the plate and delivered,” Matherne said. “This unique opportunity drives our students to deliver consulting beyond any course requirement because South Coast relies upon their findings when investing their own money. That kind of analytical skill combined with ‘skin in the game’ experience is exactly what future employers are looking for.”
When reflecting upon the partnership with Loyola’s MBA program, Clayton White emphasized “Without the partnership with Loyola and their engaged students we could not have reviewed as many businesses nor performed the amount of due diligence review required to make an investment in the same timeframe.”
The technology developed by Omnicademy allows colleges and universities to offer a variety of curricula to students at other educational partners in a virtual setting. By offering these virtual classes, broadcast over the internet, it allows universities to offer more courses and generate more tuition dollars without substantially increasing overhead costs.
South Coast Angel Fund is a member-managed angel capital fund designed to utilize the capital, resources, and expertise of its members and the unique partnership with Loyola University to help launch and grow early stage companies, primarily within Louisiana and the Gulf Coast community.