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
What made you decide to be a professional investor?
Right place, right time. I left my career in academic research in 2014 to begin an MBA at Portland State University. I started working with TiE Oregon, an angel group in Portland, OR, in 2016 as I was wrapping up my degree. I knew about the startup and angel community abstractly but didn't have a good sense of what it was really like. 5.5 years later, I found I absolutely love working with entrepreneurs and helping them navigate the challenges of starting companies.
What did you do before becoming an investor and how does that benefit your founders?
I spent 12 years as a research neurophysiologist. While that by itself may not be helpful, my education and training as a scientist taught me how to identify problems quickly, ask targeted, probing questions, and come up with potential solutions and ways to test them. More than having the right answer, I have found helping entrepreneurs come up with solutions through asking the right questions is incredibly valuable. I'm sure my in-depth knowledge of the rat brain will come in handy one day, though.
What are your most successful investments so far?
Despite being a relatively young fund, having been founded in 2016, we have realized 4 exits to date. One of our first investments, RFPIO, exited within 2 years. Brandlive provided us another (partial) exit this year and we are very excited to see this company continue to grow. The majority of our portfolio is still active and we have several companies positioning for new fundraising or potential exits this year. TrovaTrip, our last investment from Fund 1, just closed a Seed round led by PSL. We participated in that round out of Fund 2 and are very impressed with their growth trajectory.
Why should founders want you on their cap table?
Our General Partners are all seasoned entrepreneurs (including 2 IPOs) and have weathered the ups and downs of the last 20+ years. We believe very strongly in mentor capital and engage with our portfolio companies in whatever way makes the most sense to help them succeed.
How many new pitches (actual calls/zooms) do you take per month?
Too many? Just pitches for new companies is ~25-30 per month.
How many new investments do you make per year?
We hit the ground running with Fund 2. Since October 2020, we've made 10 new investments and 7 follow-ons from Fund 1. We are targeting 5-6/year but are not terribly strict on that if we see good opportunities. Though at this point, we are only going to make a few more investments to round out the portfolio.
What's your sweet spot(s) in terms of check size, valuation, and vertical?
Check size: $250k - $1M, depending on a lot of factors
Valuation: $5-15M, though we are participating in some much larger rounds too. We are still feeling this out as we mature from a pre-seed to a seed stage fund.
Vertical: technology (software) generally and healthcare in particular. We are pretty industry agnostic and are more interested in compelling problems and business models. Given the breadth of our team and partners, we believe we can add value across industries by helping entrepreneurs with the fundamentals of managing and growing their companies.
What one portfolio company do you want to hype for us here?
Fund 2: Time Study. Kishau Rogers is an amazing founder and created a simple, elegant solution for time management within hospitals. She is a no-nonsense leader who gets things done but is incredibly supportive and empathetic with her team.
Gap Fund: biomotum. Ray and Zach are developing a lower extremity, soft-robotic exoskeleton to help kids with Cerebral Palsy learn to walk.
What do you think the next ten years looks like for Seattle/Pacific Northwest startups?
We closed more than 17 investments entirely virtually in the last year and a half. I expect this trend will open up access to capital across the country. But, with investors gaining visibility into so many more markets, the competition for those investment dollars will increase even more. We may see increased maturity and development as a requirement for earlier seed and pre-seed rounds.
What song is currently getting the most run on your Spotify/Apple Music?
I've been listening to Anihmed's Deep House playlists on YouTube. Good beat that helps me focus, especially on diligence work. My 3-year-old son is really into mariachi music right now. So that provides a great contrast.
Favorite shoes?
I just replaced my Lems after about 5 years - with another pair of Lems. For formal occasions, I love my Primal Professionals. I'm all about minimalist shoes.
Favorite cooking ingredient?
Bacon. Garlic. Onion. But really, bacon.