As I sat down to reflect on investing in the Midwest this year, I found myself thinking about all the goals and excitement I had at the beginning of the year.
I wanted to ask other investors in the region, so I did. I shared with them below eight questions to review their 2020 by responding to at least two questions. Here are their responses!
All the links will take you to different sections and answers.
1. What were some wins for you and/or the ecosystem in 2020?
2. What were some lows for you and/or the ecosystem in 2020?
3. Which COVID trends do you think are temporary?
4. Which macro tailwinds do you think are here to stay?
5. How did you adapt or change your investing style in 2020?
6. What trends or industry-specific developments are you following?
7. What are you excited about for 2021?
8. …
This is the sixth in a series of posts exploring M&A for VC backed companies by Abhinaya Konduru, M25 & Nicole Bentz, Flyover Capital.
Post 1: Why & What?; Post 2: Acquirers; Post 3: Checklist; Post 4: Stories I; Post 5: Stories II
Previously, Nicole talked about why exit planning matters, types of exit paths, types of acquirers, and why companies get acquired. I went through a checklist of items that founders should keep in mind at various stages and some founders’ stories. In this post, we will go into SaaS multiples at the exit.
We pulled the data through Pitchbook and looked at M&A deals that took place between 2010 — 2020 with a Valuation / Revenue multiple. This resulted in a total of 219 data points. …
This is the fifth in a series of posts exploring M&A for VC backed companies by Abhinaya Konduru, M25 & Nicole Bentz, Flyover Capital.
Post 1 : Why & What? ; Post 2: Acquirers ; Post 3: Checklist; Post 4: Stories I
Previously, Nicole talked about why exit planning matters, types of exit paths, types of acquirers, and why companies get acquired. I went through a checklist of items that founders should keep in mind at various stages and some founders’ stories. This post will tell two more stories about the M&A activity that the founders shared with me.
When the business slows…
This is the fourth in a series of posts exploring M&A for VC backed companies by Abhinaya Konduru, M25 & Nicole Bentz, Flyover Capital.
Post 1 : Why & What? ; Post 2: Acquirers ; Post 3: Checklist
Previously, Nicole talked about why exit planning matters, types of exit paths, types of acquirers, and why companies get acquired. I went through a checklist of item that founders should keep in mind at various stages. In this post, I will tell some stories about M&A activity that founders shared with me.
Company: Midwest, raised a seed round, 2 years since their…
This is the third in a series of posts exploring M&A for VC backed companies by Abhinaya Konduru, M25 & Nicole Bentz, Flyover Capital.
Previously, Nicole talked about why exit planning matters, types of exit paths, types of acquirers, and why companies get acquired. In this post, I will look into a checklist of items at various stages of a VC backed company that can help prepare for an exit.
When you are taking VC money, it comes with expectations of exits in the future. It can be an IPO, getting acquired, selling to a big company/PE firm, etc. Once you have the metrics to show and there is interest from other parties, it takes anywhere from 9–18 months to complete an M&A process (there are exceptions to everything). The process is messy, but it’s important to keep exit planning in mind while you are trying to build a company. …
Table of Contents• Introduction
• Recent Exits
- Smart AG
- Quantified AG
- Performance Livestock Analytics
• Conclusion
• My Opinions
In continuing the series of Invest in the Midwest, today, I would like to dive into AgTech startups in the Midwest, more specifically exit opportunities of VC backed companies in the industry.
Midwest accounts for one-third of total United States production. As Katherine Shulman puts it in her analysis and conclusions about Midwest Agriculture innovation, “the Midwest, more than any other region, has all the pieces necessary to drive true innovation in the industry, and build the companies that will see this innovation through. …
A quick review of what I have done in the past year
Three main things that changed my role drastically from last year: changes to M25 investment model, three new team members additions (two full time and one part-time), and the COVID-19 pandemic.
My responsibilities have shifted quite a bit from focusing the majority of my time on due diligence and internal projects to relationship building and working with portfolio companies. While I was doing many of these activities in previous years, they are now the main priority in addition to everything else I was doing. …
There are too many new experiences to start counting this year! Here is what I did in the past year:
🎵 May: BTS
BTS released their new album, and they were back in Chicago again to perform. My obsession that started in October 2018 continued and probably won’t stop.
I also spent a couple of weeks looking for a new apartment to move to. It was time to move out of my apartment that I had since college.
🇮🇳 June: India
I spent most of June in India. I traveled to my hometown, a weekend road trip with friends, met new folks in the venture and startup scene in Bengaluru, and Hyderabad, saw extended family and witnessed the last few days of my grandfather. …
Trying to make fewer excuses as I explore 7 interests of mine. This post is an update from last week.
A lot has changed since last year* but the majority of my time has been spent on performing due diligence on the companies (18 investment in the past year!) that we are investing in and helping portfolio companies raise their next round of capital. My role is more internal than external and I am not the one that is out there sourcing deals. However, I do a bit of everything once it’s through the intro call. I am glad that this is changing in a couple of months because I need to learn about other areas.
One thing that was new to me was helping with the investor relations and working with LPs. There is SO MUCH that goes into it especially because M25 doesn’t have a track record yet and thus, there isn’t much to “prove” yet. Majority of the funds were raised from high net worth individuals and family offices. I can’t go into details because of regulations but let’s just say it’s a different beast and one of a kind. …
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