Bearcat Ventures

Congratulations to our fund’s first investment Tembo —already making us money??

This semester, I tried something outside of my comfort zone, and took Tim Metzner's class, Venture Capital Structure & Strategy. As a Communication Design major, Lindner College of Business is not a place I find myself often. But I had some extra room in my schedule, and thought it might be good to leave the walls of DAAP for a minute. Now, about halfway through the semester, I can say this was a great decision. The credits don't count towards my major (or my minors), but I don't regret taking this class one bit. The guest speakers have been incredible and learning about the world of VCs and entrepreneurship has opened my eyes. Tim's class has taught me invaluable lessons that I look forward to bringing to my future academic and professional career.

We welcomed two more awesome speakers to the VC class recently. Julie Whitehead and Jaydev Karande bring very different perspectives to the table, both of which are important for young founders and VCs to hear. Jaydev is a classic visionary founder who started building companies at a young age, before he had any real track record or network, and shared wise advice for those just getting started (as founders or investors): 1. Know your superpower and how that translates into your signature result (what people will hire/believe in you to accomplish). 2. The better you understand the power of pattern recognition as a fundamental mental model, the better at decision making you'll become. 3. It is possible, indeed often necessary, to borrow credibility from others when you're starting out (be it a co-founder, investor, early customer, advisor, etc). 4. If you want to be a great founder (or sales person), start by becoming a great "pain detective" (understanding the challenges/problems others are facing and getting creative about how to help). Julie is an experienced CFO from both the startup and VC side of the table and has become an expert at managing VC firm operations (think all the necessary behind the scenes details that keep GPs in compliance and effectively executing on what their Limited Partner Agreement says they will do). Some key takeaways from her this morning: 1. If finance and operations is not among the superpowers of the GP team, you had better find a partner or key hire to help manage the chaos of a fund. 2. Most parts of venture are relatively simple to understand, but often very complex to actually execute against. For example, the idea that you need to understand the value of all of your portfolio companies, as a venture investor, is pretty intuitive/straight-forward, but actually performing an unbiased valuation of a bunch of startups, at different stages, that are mostly losing money, is quite complex. 3. An interesting observation I had while listening to Julie speak this morning is that VC firms are basically just a complex multi-sided marketplace. VC's have to find, vet, and close investors as LPs in the fund (and then manage those relationships well), while also finding, vetting, investing in, and managing (trying to add value) startups to invest that LP money in. As always, I learned as much as my students while listening in!

Huge thank you to Brad for spending time with my VC students this morning and sharing his practical, first hand, experience with raising capital from various LPs. As expected he used wit & wisdom to help demystify the various types of investors and how to win them over. It addition to specific advice and thoughts on the various different LP stereotypes, he dropped a few other gems for us: 1. Never throw away an investor relationship: even if you get a no, don't burn a bridge. If you treat them well and find ways to add value, you never know how that may benefit you in the future. 2. Take advantage of the wisdom, experience, and network of your investors (they are more than just money)! 3. Find a way to add value. It may take some detective work and creativity, but there are always opportunities to support things they care about or surprise and delight them. 4. If you didn't walk away with a check, it's a no (at least for now) -- it's not a yes until money is in the bank! 5. Be thoughtful about your social and charitable calendar and look for opportunities to leverage those activities to expand your fundraising network.

We had an engaging discussion in my VC class this morning around what it takes to build a great LP pitch deck, an important element as the groups continue the journey of launching their VC firms. Using the Fireroad Ventures Fund I deck as an example, we talked about three key pieces they will need to nail: 1. The right content, well organized, with a natural flow 2. A compelling story that is woven throughout their deck 3. Thoughtful design that matches the story they are telling, provides consistency, and includes visual elements (not just words on slides) We broke down the dozen or so slides they will need in order to cover the necessary content (and a logical order in which to present it), and talked about what it looks like to create a compelling story throughout: - Personal and authentic "why" - Driven by a compelling problem worth solving - A believable explanation about why now is the right time to run after this and you are the right team to do it - All brought to life through examples of companies you either did (or would) invest in that touch on all of these elements

Announcing our 3rd and biggest investment to date...?? We are excited to share that Bearcat Ventures invested $100,000 in Sense Neuro Diagnostics, a startup founded on UC patented technology and led by CEO Geoffrey Klass. The startup, backed locally by Queen City Angels, is developing a non-invasive headset that can be used in ambulances, ERs, or the front line to help health professionals get an objective look at neurological disorders. The company recently received a $2M contract from the Department of Defense to conduct clinical trials. We look forward to the societal impact this technology offers those suffering from traumatic brain injuries. Our $1M+ student venture fund is designed to provide students with hands-on, experiential education around venture investing. Prior Bearcat Ventures’ investments include local startups Tembo and Band Connect, Inc. Special thanks to all the student Partners, Associates and Analysts that worked day and night on the due diligence over their winter break! ?? Aniruddhan Ramesh Ezra Wolf William Butler-Croutwater Vishesh Anand Anuj Menon Joshua Anh Do Bidhatri Amatya Joe Kuncheria Panjikaran Sujaay Prakash Nida Aslam Jaden Walton Jay Kothari Our investment committee meeting also marked the end of an era as Managing Partner Jay Kothari stepped down from the student venture fund to focus his attention on scaling our Venture Research Studio (VRS), our consulting arm focused on supporting UC affiliated startups and local ecosystem providers through market and fundraising research, that he founded 2+ years ago. Read more about Sense Neuro Diagnostics' life-saving technology: https://lnkd.in/gsC8-eGR Read more about Bearcat Ventures: https://lnkd.in/gbDApXCh 1819 Innovation Hub University of Cincinnati Carl H. Lindner College of Business #FoundersandFunders

My class is quickly shifting from the class I wish I had taken when I was in college, to the class I wish I had taken before building Fireroad. Learning something new every week from our guest speakers! Thanks to Chris Hjelm for spending time focusing on the mechanics of portfolio construction. Something he really highlighted, I'm not sure I fully appreciated, was how much the Partners' backgrounds should drive your approach. Broadly speaking, there are two primary approaches to building a portfolio: - Concentrated: larger checks, fewer companies, usually thematic or industry-specific - Diversified: smaller checks, more companies in your portfolio, industry agnostic Concentrated funds are usually run by former founders with deep expertise in an industry and/or an LP base with deep expertise/access. Diversified funds are often run by investors with backgrounds in finance rather than tech/startups. While there are opportunities to generate outside upside in a concentrated portfolio (5-10 companies), the odds of not returning a fund are also significantly higher. Conversely, with a larger portfolio (100 companies), it's very unlikely you'll have outside returns, but also very low odds you won't at least return the fund.

Sending good vibes and best wishes to this year's VCIC 'DREAM' team competing in Pittsburgh this weekend in the regional VCIC (Venture Capital Investment Competition) ?? Let's gooooooooooo.... Aniruddhan Ramesh Joe Kuncheria Panjikaran Nida Aslam Jay Kothari Jaden Walton Spencer Applegate Check out the universities competing and judges participating in this regional round: https://lnkd.in/gNJJWufS Go Bearcats! ?? ??

Bearcats in the Bay trip recap Part 3 Meeting with University of Cincinnati Carl H. Lindner College of Business alum, exited founder ($510M Workday VNDLY) and SIERRA Ventures managing partner Shashank Saxena, in San Francisco at his Sierra Ventures' office was a surreal experience for our students during day 2 of our Bay area trip. Shashank's entrepreneurial journey from building and growing multiple Fortune 500, category dominating products, to founding, scaling and exiting VNDLY in just five years to now helping lead one of the world's most respected and profitable venture capital funds is nothing short of remarkable (particularly given how rapid Shashank accomplished all in such a short period of time) and demonstrated to our students the importance of grit, working hard, and staying focused. Additionally, we were thrilled to have met Shashank's Sierra Ventures' colleagues managing partner Tim Guleri and principal and head of business development Craig Stanton who gave our students a Masterclass on how Sierra sources, raises and deploys its' multiple funds. Shashank highlighted several key take-aways for our group: ~?It is important to gain significant experience in the field you want to build in before diving straight into starting a startup ~Luck happens to those who put themselves in opportunistic situations.? ~Product is most important for a startup. ~Investing is more than just a check. The advice that a founder-operated VC firm can provide to founders is just as much, if not more important. ~Smaller VC firms can generate higher returns by focusing their time and energy of competent partners on the businesses they invest in. Grateful to Shashank and his colleagues, Tim and Craig, for providing our group with such a personalized and valued learning experience. Vikram Mishra Noelle Scheper Jay Kothari Hridayesh Kumar Jaden Walton Nida Aslam Amelia Wares Go Bearcats! ?? ??

My goal this semester is expose my students to people and ideas that I wish I had when I was in college, and my first guest speaker crushed it! Blake Allsmith shared his experiences from investing, to venture-backed founder, to being a dad, to bootstrapping a services business. A couple big ideas I took away: - Any time you find yourself doing something now so that you can eventually do something else (i.e. building this startup so that I can have the time/money to be a great dad later) you are probably thinking about it wrong. Do the thing, now! - Magic phrase he started using when meeting with people where he was providing some feedback or help, but also saw a business opportunity: "if you ever want to talk separately about how I could potentially help you with that, just let me know." - I don't know any way to get smarter, faster, than through pain in the short-term. Just jump in and ____ (start the business, help the person, marry the girl, etc) - The best opportunities in life will all come through real, authentic, relationships. Don't just "network" build real relationships around people and things you genuinely enjoy.