Anderson student’s start-up company competes for investors in Fast Pitch
Anderson graduate student Jonathan Lehmann will represent UCLA at tomorrow’s Fast Pitch Competition. He will have 90 seconds to present his idea and earn funding for his company, KarmaGoat.
Courtesy of Jamie Voytko
Fast pitch Los Angeles 2011
Today, 3:30-9 p.m.
Korn Hall (the event is sold out)
By Gordon Murray
Feb. 24, 2011 1:48 a.m.
Correction: The original version of this article contained an error. The Anderson School hosted the event on behalf of National Entrepreneurship Week.
As Jonathan Lehmann prepared to move from Paris to Los Angeles, he compiled a bag of items he no longer wanted, but he felt they should go to people who would appreciate them as much as he did.
Lehmann’s dilemma inspired him to create a Facebook-integrated website that would allow users to sell items on an online marketplace and give 85 percent of the proceeds to a charity of the seller’s choice.
This is not Lehmann’s first entrepreneurial business venture. In fact, business is not his first occupation.
Originally from France, Lehmann was a corporate lawyer in New York before realizing that he wanted to start his own company.
In 2006, he began a luxury handbag company with his mother.
After coming to UCLA Anderson School of Management, Lehmann conceived the idea of an L.A.-themed burger restaurant for the French market. He submitted the proposal to the Knapp Venture Competition hosted at Anderson, which he won last year.
But burgers aren’t Lehmann’s real passion.
“In light of the success we had, I did some soul searching about what I really wanted to do,” Lehmann said.
Lehmann spent the summer developing the business model for his new company, an online commerce site with proceeds going to charity, which he decided to call KarmaGoat.
The name of the company represents two concepts. The cycle of rebirth defines karma. The goat represents a commodity that, while not useful to the donor, acts as a source of food and clothing to the recipient, he said.
Today, Lehmann will present his idea to investors for funding, and he’ll only have 90 seconds to convince them.
For the sixth year, UCLA will host the Fast Pitch Competition, which is organized by the Los Angeles investment group called the Tech Coast Angels. Since founded in 1999, TCA has invested $100 million and received over $1 billion in returns from these investments, said Robert Jadon, co-chair of Fast Pitch.
Ten companies will make 90-second pitches to a panel of judges.
KarmaGoat is the only one of these companies that is represented by UCLA students. Forty companies were originally in the contest and were eliminated in earlier rounds.
Among other tech companies, competitors include consumer service and green energy companies, Jadon said.
Lehmann said it’s less about packing information into a pitch and more about emphasizing a few certain points that will impact judges the most. The panel will award prizes for best presentation, best investment opportunity and best overall.
The winners will then advance to an investment screening process, where TCA will assess whether to invest money in the companies.
Jadon said that winners of the competition can potentially begin to receive money from TCA within a month.
The Anderson School is hosting the competition on behalf of National Entrepreneurship Week celebrations, said Angela Klein, program manager for Anderson.
Whether or not he receives funding from TCA, Lehmann said he plans to have the KarmaGoat site launched by May.
The company will be initially targeted at UCLA students and beta-tested at the university. Then, it will be modified based on the UCLA feedback.
