The Sparkhouse Fund is a first-of-its-kind, student-run venture fund within the Center for Black Entrepreneurship. Students across the Atlanta University Center deploy real capital — up to $50,000 per investment — into mission-aligned ventures, with returns flowing directly back to Spelman College and Morehouse College as an evergreen fund for future generations of students.
Not a simulation. A real fund.
The Sparkhouse Fund is the first student-run venture fund at the Atlanta University Center, housed within the Center for Black Entrepreneurship at Spelman and Morehouse Colleges. It is not a classroom exercise — it is a live investment vehicle through which students learn entrepreneurial finance by doing it.
Students enrolled in the Intro to Venture Investing course evaluate real companies, conduct due diligence, structure terms, and deploy investments of up to $50,000 into thriving, mission-aligned ventures. These are not student-founded startups: the fund invests in established companies seeking capital that aligns with their values.
Sparkhouse is designed to change who controls capital — not just who receives it. By training the next generation of Black investors in practice, not theory, the fund builds durable infrastructure for community wealth that outlasts any single investment.
The fund sits inside the CBE’s broader ecosystem — alongside scholarship support, pitch competitions, mentorship, and an online certificate program. Sparkhouse is the capital layer that completes the stack.
Intro to Venture Investing
The pipeline into the Sparkhouse Fund begins here. “Intro to Venture Investing” is a Spelman College course open to students across the Atlanta University Center through cross-registration — and the front door to becoming a student fund manager with Sparkhouse.
The course is taught by Shane Kelly, Spelman Faculty and inaugural Sparkhouse Fund Director. It is designed not as a survey of venture capital, but as a practitioner’s introduction: students learn how professional investors evaluate companies, structure deals, negotiate terms, and think about portfolio construction — and then they do it.
Students who complete the course and demonstrate strong investment judgment will be eligible to participate directly in the Sparkhouse Fund — deploying capital, sitting in diligence meetings, and building the kind of track record that opens real doors in venture and beyond.
No prior finance or business background is required. The course is open to all majors across the AUC. What matters is curiosity, rigor, and the desire to understand how capital works — and how to make it work for your community.
The kind of company Sparkhouse was built for
Thomas Bittings Founder, Goldilocks
Founder, Goldilocks
Thomas Bittings is a mission-aligned founder whose company, Goldilocks, represents exactly the kind of venture the Sparkhouse Fund was designed to support: a thriving, values-driven business built by an underestimated founder, seeking capital that aligns with its mission and the communities it serves.
Founders like Thomas are the reason the Sparkhouse Fund exists — and they are why the student investors being trained right now will have something genuinely worth investing in.
Shane Kelly Founder & CEO, Cinematica Labs
Shane Kelly is a 3x founder, 30x startup investor, and 20x film financier who has spent two decades at the intersection of technology, mission-driven capital, and community building. He joined Spelman College as Faculty and the inaugural Sparkhouse Fund Director in 2026.
As Founder and CEO of Cinematica Labs, Shane has provided a three-month accelerator to more than 1,000 mission-driven founders — resulting in 9,000+ hours of mentorship and 3,000+ lasting relationships between founders, mentors, and investors.
Prior to Cinematica, Shane ran investments for the Titan Fund (powered by CrowdSmart), founded Wolverine Angels (a University of Michigan alumni syndicate), served as Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at USC Marshall, and partnered with Black Ambition (Pharrell Williams) and PledgeLA (Annenberg Foundation) for five consecutive years.
Shane earned an MBA with distinction from the University of Michigan, where he was a Consortium for Graduate Study in Management Fellow. He earned a BS cum laude in Mathematics and Physics from Morehouse College.
$50K
Maximum investment per company, deployed by student fund managers
2
HBCU institutions — Spelman College and Morehouse College, Atlanta University Center
2026
Inaugural year — first cohort of student investors enrolling Fall 2026
“Student investors, not just student entrepreneurs, change the wealth equation. Real capital. Real decisions. Real returns — flowing back to the institutions that built us.”
The next generation of investors doesn’t have to wait. The Sparkhouse Fund puts the work in their hands — now.
Returns flow directly back to Spelman College and Morehouse College — an evergreen fund that builds institutional wealth for future generations of students.
The next generation of investors doesn’t have to wait. The Sparkhouse Fund puts the work in their hands — now.
