BOULDER, Colo. -- Venture capitalist Brad Feld hopes that using the men's room named in his honor will be an inspirational experience.

Feld paid $25,000 to have a plaque mounted outside a restroom at the University of Colorado bearing his name and this advice: "The best ideas often come at inconvenient times. Don't ever close your mind to them."

Feld, managing director at Foundry Group and Mobius Venture Capital, both based in Boulder, said he wanted a plaque "to inspire people as they walk in to do their business."

Some of his best ideas have come while he's on the toilet or in the shower, he said. "It's a good time to reflect. It's a quiet moment."

Feld said he made a similar offer a few years ago to his alma matter, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but the school turned him down.

He related that experience to John Bennett, director of a new University of Colorado building called the Alliance for Technology, Learning and Society, or ATLAS.

"I named a price and told him the quote had to be tasteful," Bennett said.

There are other name opportunities listed on the ATLAS Web site:

Building Co-Naming: $2.25 million

NCWIT Headquarters: $1 million

Exhibition/Atrium/Gallery: $1 million

Black Box: $1 million

Production Studio: $500,000

ATLAS Tower: $500,000

Exterior Plaza: $250,000

Film Screening Room: $500,000

Board Room: $200,000

Student Commons: $150,000

Group Project Spaces: $100,000

Group Design Spaces $50,000

Large Hall Benches: $25,000

Board Room Seats: $10,000

Film Screening Room Seats: $2,500

Auditorium Seats: $1,000