“The Midwest market is a core focus for our fund, and it continues to produce great returns. With an investor group brought together by NVNG, we anticipate seeing more activity flood into Wisconsin and the surrounding markets.” Ryan Broshar, Founding Partner – Matchstick Ventures (Minneapolis, MN).
“While our team now resides on the coasts, the Midwest market has been a growing attraction for us. Given NVNG's experience in the space, their ability to establish relationships with top performing funds, and their mission to impact my home state of Wisconsin, I'm excited to support and see what this group and its investors can accomplish!” Marvin Tien, General Partner – Corner Ventures (San Francisco, CA).
“During the decade and a half that I spent investing in Silicon Valley, I noticed a trend over time where all of our companies would look to set up an engineering or sales office outside of the Bay Area. Then I started to notice those remote team starting and leading the next generation of companies, but they didn’t have an interest or need to move back to the Bay Area to do it. I believe that many of the great tech companies of the future will be built outside of Silicon Valley and firms like NVNG will ensure that those entrepreneurs have the financing and resources necessary to build category defining companies.” Greg Robinson, General Partner – 4490 Ventures (Madison, WI).
“It used to be that venture capitalists made all their money investing in technology, but today all the returns come from the application of technology to traditional industry. The Midwest has huge advantages in this new era of startups because there is so much industry domain knowledge in the Midwest. Sure, Silicon Valley will attempt to solve it all with computer science and machine learning, but nothing beats a team that consists of excellent engineering skills coupled with industry experience.” Chris Olsen, Founding Partner – Drive Capital (Columbus, OH).
“As a dual office Midwest and Silicon Valley firm, we are able to compare market conditions across regions in real time. During times of volatility, Midwest valuations rationalize more quickly, while quality and selection simultaneously improve. Our greatest returns have occurred in the years following a downturn, with two of our three best investments ever being based in the Midwest during those periods. Partnering with an investor group brought together by NVNG increases deal flow and makes it even more likely that we will have breakout investment successes in Wisconsin and the surrounding markets.” Justin Kaufenberg, Partner – Rally Ventures (Minneapolis, MN).
“We’ve invested in 100+ companies in the Midwest since 2015 – many in Wisconsin. Startup activity, in both volume and scale, has grown tremendously in that time, and NVNG should not only be able to capitalize on it – but further catalyze it as well.” Victor Gutwein, Founding Partner – M25 Venture Capital (Chicago, IL).