Undergraduate students at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business have raised an additional $7.8 million for their student-managed private equity fund, Sample Gates Management Inc., according to an April 28 announcement. This follows the initial success of raising and investing $4.2 million in real estate projects across the country.
The expansion of Sample Gates Management Inc. highlights experiential learning opportunities available to students at Indiana University Bloomington, which functions as a public research university and serves as a leading hub for higher education and discovery, according to the official website (https://bloomington.iu.edu/). The program allows students to gain hands-on experience in fundraising, investment management, and business operations.
Doug McCoy, Al and Shary Oak Executive Director of Real Estate at Kelley School of Business and director of Kelley’s Center for Real Estate Studies, said: “The original vision was to integrate academics into practice, and this is our pinnacle experience that has brought those two together. Experiential learning fills in the cracks that may develop in students’ minds as they take classes and learn concepts and fundamentals.”
Sample Gates Management now oversees about $12 million in assets across two investment funds after exceeding its phase two goal by raising capital from 74 real estate firms, financial companies, individual investors—including many alumni—and conducting more than 200 meetings with prospective investors. Student-run private equity funds are typically more common at the master’s level; however, this undergraduate initiative stands out due to its scale.
Tom Peck, faculty advisor with over three decades of commercial real estate experience and chief investment officer at Hageman Group said: “A fun part of the student experience is investing real money into real deals, and that is really great. But even more importantly — and the way we do it at Kelley — is that the students raise the money themselves, which is probably just as valuable to our students.”
Since its inception, IU students have made direct investments spanning multifamily housing developments like Echo Park in Bloomington (a city known for its limestone architecture) according to Indiana University Bloomington’s official website. Other projects include Alto Apartments in Lenexa, Kansas.
Blake Albert served as president of Sample Gates Management this year while studying at IU Kelley School; he said: “It allows us to start to understand the full scope of how many moving pieces there are in running a company.” He added his involvement exposed him to unexpected challenges not found within structured classroom settings.
Peck also commented on long-term benefits: “There’s a lot of administrative knowledge they receive through their work with the fund,” he said. “They learn how to deal with investors and how to manage all aspects of running a business… When some of them make that big decision to start a company, they’ll be able to draw upon their experience here at Kelley.”
Indiana University Bloomington contributes significantly both economically and culturally according to its official website, attracting a diverse community from all 50 U.S states plus over 150 countries worldwide.
