$35 Million and a Deferred Dream: How Meridian Ventures Is Rewriting the Founder Playbook
Cyprus Business Group | Venture Capital & Innovation
When Devon Gethers and Karlton Haney crossed paths in a prestigious Harvard admissions programme, neither could have predicted that their shared detour from business school would become the founding principle of a multi-million dollar investment firm. Today, Meridian Ventures stands as a bold statement to the startup world — one backed by $35 million in institutional capital.
Two Founders, One Common Thread
The story of Meridian Ventures begins not in a boardroom, but in the corridors of Harvard Business School’s deferred admission programme (HBS 2+2), where high-achieving undergraduates are offered a place in the MBA class years before they intend to attend. It was here, in 2020, that Gethers, then 27, first connected with Haney.
Their backgrounds could hardly have been more different. Gethers, now 29, was raised in modest circumstances in Washington State, going on to study behavioural science and finance at the University of Utah before transitioning into private equity and eventually founding — and exiting — his own company. Haney, 28, grew up on a farm in Arkansas, where he spent his youth raising chickens and other birds — “anything that flew,” as Gethers has described his partner’s early life. Haney later studied industrial engineering at the University of Arkansas and honed his investment instincts at The Stephens Group, a prominent family office.
Despite their contrasting origins, both men had chosen to defer their MBAs to pursue opportunities in the real world first — and that shared decision would eventually become the thesis of their firm.
Pushing Back Against Silicon Valley Orthodoxy
In 2023, Gethers and Haney formally joined forces with a clear — and deliberately contrarian — investment mandate: back founders who had deferred their MBAs, just as they had.
The idea challenges a widely held assumption in the tech startup ecosystem. As Gethers explained: “Our thesis is going against a bit of the grain, the rhetoric you hear in Silicon Valley that MBAs don’t make good founders.” The prevailing view in many venture circles is that MBA training moulds people for corporate structures rather than the fast-moving, ambiguity-laden world of early-stage startups. Meridian Ventures was founded to challenge that assumption directly.
This is not a niche critique. Research from organisations such as the Kauffman Foundation and commentators at Harvard Business Review have long debated the role of formal business education in entrepreneurship. What sets Meridian apart is its willingness to place capital behind the argument.
Proving the Concept Before Raising the Fund
Before approaching institutional investors, the pair did what any good founder would: they tested their thesis with limited resources. Through cold outreach and door-to-door fundraising, Gethers and Haney assembled a $2.5 million proof-of-concept vehicle, which they deployed across 45 early-stage companies. The exercise gave them not just data, but credibility.
With that portfolio in hand, they enrolled at Harvard Business School in the summer of 2023 — finally taking up their long-deferred places. Roughly a year into the programme, they decided to pursue their first institutional raise. The fundraising climate at the time was by no means forgiving; venture funding globally had contracted significantly following the peak years of 2021–2022, as tracked by organisations including PitchBook and Crunchbase.
Despite the headwinds, the pair succeeded in closing an oversubscribed fund of $35 million. Their limited partners included publicly traded banks, family offices, and executives from Fortune 500 companies — a diverse mix that itself signals confidence in the Meridian thesis. The two graduated from Harvard Business School in 2025.
Where the $35 Million Will Go
Meridian Ventures is focused on enterprise technology companies based in the United States. The fund is deliberately sector-agnostic: Gethers has noted that the firm’s existing portfolio already spans fintech, logistics, healthcare, and artificial intelligence.
The capital will be structured as follows:
- Pre-seed investments: average cheque size of $500,000
- Seed investments: average cheque size of $750,000
- Deployment timeline: approximately three years
The fund’s approach reflects broader trends in early-stage venture, where pre-seed and seed rounds have become increasingly competitive and institutionalised. Platforms such as AngelList and Carta have documented the growing demand for dedicated early-stage capital across the US startup ecosystem.
Closing the Gap Between Ambition and Capital
At the heart of Meridian’s mission is a belief that talented founders are being underserved — particularly those who come from non-traditional backgrounds or unconventional paths. As Gethers put it: “We saw an expanding gap between ambitious founders building frontier technologies and the capital required to help carry those ambitions forward. With this $35 million fund, our goal is to seal that gap.”
For a venture firm built by two people who chose to step off the conventional track — and then raised millions to help others do the same — that ambition feels entirely on-brand.
Sources and further reading: Harvard Business School 2+2 Deferred Enrolment Programme | Kauffman Fellows on MBA Founders | Harvard Business Review – MBAs and Entrepreneurship | PitchBook Venture Market Data | Crunchbase Startup Funding Trends | AngelList Early-Stage Investing | Carta Startup Equity Data
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