The rest of the 100 (in alphabetical order): Nick Maull, associate director, N.xt Fund
Northwestern University alumnus Nick Maull runs the institution’s $10m N.xt fund, which was set up in 2016 to provide additional support for Northwestern’s entrepreneurship and commercialisation efforts.
Having completed an MBA at the university, Maull has been involved with its New Ventures program – initially as assistant director and more recently as associate director – since 2013.
The N.xt fund provides support – with investments typically of between $50,000 and $200,000 – to early-stage innovations that are too advanced for federal funding but not yet ready to seek private backing.
Maull also manages Northwestern’s $4m seed vehicle NUSeeds for startups that have participated in the university’s Garage accelerator. NUSeeds aims to invest sums of between $10,000 and $100,000.
The N.xt fund’s first exit came in June this year when biopharma company Aptinyx achieved a $102m initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. Portfolio companies currently include cancer research startups Third Coast Therapeutics and Preora Diagnostics.
