Our Mission

Earning Our Place

We are not a venture capital school. We do not aspire to be the "Stanford of the Midwest." Our goal is not to reproduce a model, but to build one on our own terms.

We do not outsource judgment. Our learnings and our commitments are unique. This posture defines our investment approach, where differentiation is imperative. NDVC exists to train the next generation of venture investors not through theory or case studies, but real capital deployed. We earn our edge by doing the work others will not and staying engaged after the excitement fades. Responsibility for outcomes rests with us, not our proximity to institutions or individuals.

Our goal is simple: to make the life of a founder easier in any way we can. In addition to capital, we offer access to the Notre Dame alumni network, alumni-backed funds, and an engaged student body providing talent, customers, and perspective.

To entrepreneurs building the future: we want to earn the right to be by your side as a partner. To the investors we learn from: we want to earn the right to stand beside you.

The founders we back and the team behind NDVC are cut from the same cloth. We ask the same of each other - to be honest enough to never run from the truth, humble enough to ask for help when we need it, hungry enough to prove that we belong, and helpful enough to make each other's lives easier in any way we can.

We support decisive founders who assume risk and responsibility as a matter of course. They accept the cost of being early and wrong, so long as they keep moving forward. They think independently, make hard decisions with incomplete information, and commit fully once they choose a path.

Our involvement extends well beyond the first check as long-term partners, with contributions driven by teamwork rather than individual heroics. We are best equipped to help these founders because we are most like them.

Notre Dame Venture Capital is a student-run early-stage fund deploying a portion of Notre Dame's endowment into technology-enabled companies. We emerged in 2017 because a small group believed this capability was necessary.

We intend to prove them right.

Those before us found their way in; our responsibility now is to remove the barriers entirely. We are here to make venture capital part of Notre Dame's identity. We want to earn our place beside every founder, alongside the funds we admire. We earn it by doing the work others won't, staying engaged after the excitement fades, and backing founders building durable companies that create real value in the world.

If Mendoza's mission is to grow the good in business, then backing the people who actually build those businesses is a direct expression of it.

This will take time, and that is expected. We are building something meant to endure.

- NDVC Leadership 2026