Xconomy takes a close look at U-M’s Wolverine Venture Fund

Business students at the University of Michigan aren’t making venture capital investments with monopoly money. They have millions of dollars at their disposal and they’re making some smart investments in local start-ups.Excerpt:Tom Kinnear says he is a great “theoretical golfer.” It is the implementation that is lacking.In the same way, business students who learn how venture capital works without ever investing real money in real companies may be at a disadvantage, Kinnear says. That’s why, 11 years ago, Kinnear and colleagues at the University of Michigan’s business school launched the Wolverine Venture Fund, what he calls the country’s first student-led venture capital initiative.”The way I look at it is you can theoretically teach how to do this, which is interesting, but it’s like an athlete being theoretically taught how to play a sport. You’ve really got to play the sport. So, this is the playing of the sport,” says Kinnear, who is executive director of the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and managing director of the Wolverine Venture Fund.Read the rest of the story here.