Portland VC Profile: Julie Harrelson

When I started Ascend in 2019, I realized even though I was o-l-d OLD, I had more in common with the folks in town who were earlier in their professional investing journeys than the venerable VC’s I’d pitched as a founder. I admire and respect the new wave of Seattle/Pacific Northwest venture capitalists, and thought it would be fun to profile some of our region’s up and coming VC talents in these pages. —KW

Julie Harrelson has more diverse business experience than the next 3 VCs put together. She brings it all to the table in support of founders, and after working with her on a recent company, I’ve grown to admire her candor and manner - and her business brain!

What made you decide to be a professional investor?

As a former operator who made every fundraising mistake under the sun as an early entrepreneur, I wanted to make investments with founders of seed stage companies to accelerate their success. I also wanted to activate capital in the Pacific Northwest, my lifetime home. Data show that small funds tend to outperform larger funds so we decided to build build small, seed stage funds (approximately $10M-$20M) and create portfolios of about 25 companies.

What did you do before becoming an investor and how does that benefit your founders?

I've variously been CEO, management consultant and sales and marketing executive. I've worked nationwide with global companies and have a substantial network in the Pacific Northwest. Beyond that I've have been involved in both successful and failed companies, learning from the school of hard knocks and from some amazing colleagues over the course of my career. It benefits founders in that I know their pain from operating experience and can support strategy development and leveraging resources for successful execution.

Why should founders want you on their cap table?

We are active but not activist investors. So we are engaged when you need us but not wasting entrepreneurs time. We are available for the good stuff and the hard stuff. As former operators, we don't freak out when we hear about obstacles--we help to resource the solutions. We strive to be clear, fair and as compassionate as it is possible to be in balancing the dynamic tension of building a successful portfolio and being human. Our diligence process is well-defined and doesn't take tons of founders precious time. Our portfolio founders share best practices and resources with each other.

How many new pitches (actual calls/zooms) do you take per month?

Monthly it varies but somewhere between 200-300 calls/Zooms per year.

How many new investments do you make per year?

5-7

What's your sweet spot(s) in terms of check size, valuation, and vertical?

Check size is $100-$250K, generally, valuations ar less than $8M, 75% tech of the portfolio is tech, 25% consumer brands.

What one portfolio company do you want to hype for us here?

This is like naming your favorite child! Seriously, take a look at the Cascade portfolio.

What do you think the next ten years looks like for Seattle/Pacific Northwest startups?

Seattle/PNW will show the same ability to weather the storm and come out better on the other side as it always has. Layoffs and a massive shift in executive leadership plus dynamic industry and world changes could lead to an increased number of startups that try to solve big issues with the PNW leading the way.