Hublished Gets Funding From NYU Prof. (AKA FirstMark Capital’s Lawrence Lenihan) During Spring Class

Hublished is still in private beta, so details are sparse on what the new content distribution platform (which reportedly helps content producers market their work through a webinar, e-book, podcast marketplace/network) is up to. However, we do know that the company has received over $150k in funding before its forthcoming beta launch next month.

So where did this cash come from?

Well, interestingly enough, a solid chunk of the funding came from none other than Lawrence Lenihan. Many of you know him as a partner at FirstMark Capital, but to the Hublished founders, he was the NYU Professor in their entrepreneurial class entitled Ready, FIRE!, Aim.

We sat down with Lenihan, and Hublished co-founders Ben Borodach and Ryan Kuhel to discuss the effect this class, and Lenihan, had on the trajectory of their as-yet-unlaunched startup.

The story goes like this: Part of the promise of Lenihan’s course was that the team who finished the Spring 2012 semester with an investible idea would walk away with the entirety of Lenihan’s NYU Professor’s salary, a cool $12,500. The rest of the $150k came along the way from undisclosed angels and family and friends.

Ryan Kahul, one of the Hublished co-founders, was in the class and participated in the competition with his co-founders from Rutgers.

Months passed, and it turns out that Hublished came in second. But Lenihan explains in his blog post that the first place team decided that they did not want to be irresponsible with the funding, and that they’re product wasn’t viable in the long term.

That said, Lenihan still made good on his promise and handed over the funding to Hublished, who has been raising since the idea’s inception in the summer of 2011.

Now, the company is revving up to a launch next month. Luckily, the co-founders sent us a little sneak peak screengrab of the platform in action.

hublished

Meanwhile, Lenihan has revealed that he won’t be teaching the same course next year, but that he does have some ideas floating around that still involve teaching and fostering entrepreneurial spirits, but that are more suited toward 2013 instead of 2008.