Navigating Seed + Venture Capital During a Pandemic

During the most recent “The Current State” webinar, presented by BrownWinick, LWBJ and the Greater Des Moines Partnership, panelists discussed perspectives on navigating seed and venture capital during a pandemic. Chris Sackett, managing partner at BrownWinick, welcomed guests to the event, including the moderators and panelists for two panels:

• JD Geneser, CPA at LWBJ — Investor Panel Moderator
  • Eric Engelmann, ISA Ventures
  • Craig Ibsen, Next Level Ventures
  • Joe Leo, BrownWinick
  • Sheldon Ohringer, Formation Partners and Mango Seed Investments
• Brad Dwyer, founder, CTO at Roboflow — Entrepreneurial Moderator
  • Lana Fox, ClinicNote
  • Kyle McMahon, Tractor Zoom
  • Casey Niemann, AgriSync
  • Michael Ott, Rantizo

Investor Panel

Continuing Investments During the Pandemic

Ibsen says that in the last 12 months, Next Level Ventures has invested in 11 companies. Prior to that, their second busiest year was 2019 with four investments. He says there’s never been a better time to found a business or seek capital in Iowa or anywhere else. The pandemic has shown that anyone can easily connect across the country whether investor or entrepreneur. Engelmann shares how companies he’s worked with weren’t badly affected by the pandemic and that founders showed resilience throughout the situation. Ohringer says with more than 100 investments (with 90+ on AngelList), he hasn’t heard of too many companies that haven’t survived the pandemic. Leo discusses how BrownWinick has addressed legal and business questions for companies throughout the pandemic, including losing talent due to uncertainty in the market. He says most clients that weathered the crisis began to use technology to maximize the time they spent reaching out to investors within their markets.

The panel also touches on reserving capital, unique pitches and ideas, readiness of companies to take on capital, changes in the diligence process and more.

The Entrepreneur Panel begins at timestamp 57:16.

Entrepreneur Panel

Finding Investors During the Pandemic

Ott talks about the importance of making connections early, even before you need it. It takes a long time to build those connections and go through the due diligence process. McMahon reflects on when the pandemic first started and how they focused on delaying expenses until at least the summer. He says for them it’s always taken at least six months from an initial conversation until the funding closes, but the process is dependent on what investors you’re. Niemann says managing the pipeline of potential investors should be done the same way you would customers, in other words founders should create a funnel, or CRM, to better follow up with them. He says providing positive updates even when not raising funds is vital. Investors want these updates, especially if you’re hitting your milestones. Fox says her strategy for raising funds relies on direct introductions.

Other topics discussed by the panel included finding mentors who have been both investors and founders, the value of investors and how to utilize investors to get value beyond cash, finding active investors with needed skillsets and being able to acknowledge what you don’t know.

Watch the entire webinar below:

 

You can count on The Partnership to continue to share accurate and fact-based updates. See more on COVID-19 here.

Find these tips useful? Learn more tricks on how to maximize the potential of your business through The Partnership’s Small Business Resources Hub.