Venture In The South

E128: The story of Ozy Media is one of greed, betrayal, grift and astonishing hubris. But not the first nor the last such occurrence. While not on the scale of Theranos or FTX, it was not for lack of trying. David details the 10 year saga of Ozy Media's rise and spectacular fall, culminating with criminal convictions on federal charges of fraud, conspiracy and identity theft. Ozy raised a tot...

E127: South Carolina is surging with founders and startups seeking capital investment. In today's episode, Paul Clark and Dawson Racek of VentureSouth and Venture Carolina recap the Upstate Upstarts List of South Carolina, and discuss how they plan to use list to select the 15-20 most promising Startups for their Upstate Upstarts Fund. They review the rationale for the UU List, the investment...

E126: HealthyCell is a DTC supplements business with the competitive advantage of a proprietary oral gel delivery system that makes their suppliments better absorbed, easier to swallow and taste great. HC was first interviewed for E93 when they were launching their growth plan and reaching for profitability. Today David interviews Doug Giampappa, Founder and CEO of HealthyCell to update listeners...

E125: Kiyatec is a Cancer Diagnostics Startup focused on solving the problem of selecting the best chemotherapy for each individual cancer patient's specific cancer. The standard of care today is essentially trial and error following a menu of consensus empiric chemotherapy choices, then trying the most likely effective drug first and measuring response. Kiyatec's solution, 3-D Predict,...

E124: 757 Angels are based in Hampton Rhodes, VA and host a truely robust startup ecosystem. They offer a progressive support program for founders with a Startup Studio supporting pre-seed startups, progressing to the 757 Accelerate Program supporting growing startups and the 757 Angels who have raised over $100M of Angel Investment over the last 10 years. Paul interviews the leadership team of Pa...

E123: The Southern US is a distinct geographic market for Startups and Startup Investors with specific strengths and weaknesses. David and Paul discuss the general thesis of startup investing and then dig into the specific thesis for investing in Southern Startups. We review the southern startup ecosystem, capital formation, valuations, and exit potentials -- and particularly how the fundamental d...

E122: Economic Development is at full throttle with the Florida Opportunity Fund (FOF). They are focused on Seed and Series A tech startups with ~$150M+ deployed to date. FOF is currently pursuing four specific efforts:  The FLORIDA VENTURE CAPITAL PROGRAM (FLVCP),  founded in 2011, invests in emerging Florida companies in sectors with strategic importance to the state. FLVCP typically invests $1M...

E121: Fundraising terms are critical to successful startup growth and to successful exits for Founders and Investors. Arguably the most important term for Founders may be the Vesting terms that determine their take at exit. For Investors, it's the Liquidation Preference that determines their position in the line to get money after a liquidity event (and even which line(s) they are are in). Wi...

E120: VentureAtlanta is one of the largest and most reputable venture conferences in the US, with over 1,500 annual attendees, 450 funds, and $17B in successful exits. It is a starting point for deal flow for Startup Investors of all stripes: Angels, VCs, private equity and large cap acquirers. David interviews Allyson Eman , the CEO of Venture Atlanta, about this year's event on October 8 &a...

E119: Startups at various stages struggle with HR. Some use a professional such as a Professional Employer Organization (PEO), an Administrative Services Organization (ASO) or a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company. Others do everything "in house". Paul interviews Gia Wiggins, a seasoned HR professional who is Founder and CEO of Auditocity, a platform that can give you clear insigh...

E118: The Central Texas Angel Network in Austin has been a focus for Angels there since 2006. Gary Forni is the new Chair of CTAN and brings his own perspective and some innovation to the group. We discuss CTAN's deal flow, their approach to diligence, their industry agnostic approach and their impressive investment results.  Both Angels and Entrepreneurs will be interested in CTAN's uni...

E117: David interviews Shannon Denton , Co-founder and CEO of Wripple , which is a two-sided marketplace that helps brands build a modern marketing team, hiring by role or hiring by project.  A proven talent supply is screened and curated as individuals and as teams while agencies and enterprise brands  can shop the marketplace with cost transparency and confidence in the talent skill sets. This s...

E116: Non-competes and TikTok are banned, maybe capital gains too.  The FTC flexed its muscle this week by imposing a federal ban on employee non-compete agreements, with some exceptions. Congress flexed its muscle too, with legislation banning TikTok. We discuss those events and how they could affect the Startup Ecosystem.  We also talk about the potential budget ratcheting up the capital gains t...

E115: uMed was a marketplace platform for self-insured employers to shop for healthcare services that David started with his son Dan in late 2019.  When the COVID-19 pandemic brought business to a halt, they pivoted to a COVID-19 testing business to solve the overwhelming demand problem for timely and convenient testing. Competing in a market dominated by large hospital systems and state health de...

E114: ICONIC is a digital platform at the intersection of Art and the Digital Economy. Founded eight years ago, Iconic is a global pioneer in expanding the reach of cultural institutions and the arts. It partners with museums, digital artists, and brands to produce incredible digital and physical art for cultural collectors around the world. They offer a marketplace for digital art integrated with...

E113: Maybe you had a Startup Investment Exit, or know someone who did, that wasn't as lucrative as you expected. The target return may have been 10X or greater but after the dust settled your proceeds were more like 1.2X. You generally can attribute that outcome to the known risks of Early Stage Startup Investing, but sometimes it's the deal terms that bite. David and Paul discuss their...

E112: Luminelle is a surging FemTech startup that was recognized by VentureSouth for >100% YoY revenue growth, albeit from a modest base. 2023 was a breakout year for luminelle because they completed all FDA medical device regulatory requirements, achieved third-party payor acceptance, and gained provider acceptance as the new standard of care for office based uterine diagnostics without anesth...

E111: The Expanding Access to Capital Act of 2023 (HB2799) is a proposed bill tha recently passed the US House of Representative. It would substantially change how startup investing works in the US. It would change the basic definition of an accredited investor, change how both small and large startup funds operate, and lower regulatory burdens. The stated goal is to increase available capital for...

E110: Gradient Health has had a blow out year consistent with the AI economy at large. As a data provider for AI training and validation for foundational models in medical imaging, they have enjoyed explosive growth with >100% YoY revenue growth for 2023 and forecasting even greater revenue growth for 2024. David previously interviewed CEO and co-founder Josh Miller about his company in E55 in...

E109: Sharpen is a digital therapeutic and training tool for the best ideas in mental health. Its a social-ecological model approach to mental health literacy where all tiers of individuals are trained with age-appropriate, de-stigmatized content. They use peer-focused documentary film-based trainings created in collaboration with community members and researchers for: Screening & Monitoring,...

E108: Angel Investors are everywhere but only represent about 7.5% of all accredited investors. Given that diversified early stage startup fund results equal or exceed many other capital investment strategies (Public Equities, Bonds, Private Equity, & Real Estate) with a >20% 10 year average IRR, why aren't more accredited investors including early stage startups in a diversified portf...

E107: Hey parents, it turns out you're never too young to innovate! Mother and daughter team Rozalynn and Gabby Goodwin set a new standard for innovation when Gabby pushed her mom to help her solve a common hair care problem with GaBBY Bows when she was just 7 years old. Over the last 10 years, the team has developed multiple patented hair care products that solved an unmet need and grown tha...

E106: The Angel Investor Ecosystem has grown from modest beginnings to a robust national ecosystem thanks to Angel Groups such as Queen City Angels in Cincinnati and the Angel Capital Association . David and Matt Dunbar interview Tony Shipley , the Chairman and Co-founder of Queen City Angels (QCA) in Cincinnati and the Chair Emeritus of the Angel Capital Association (ACA), about those organizatio...

Startups and Venture investing seems to have come to a crossroads in 2024, with many venture funds and founders that have much in common but maybe not so much when it comes to innovation. The Brick Yard is innovating Southern Venture with an In-Residence Seed Stage Fund focused on a select group of founders, supporting them to a Series A. David interviews General Partner Cam Doody about the Brick...

In this bonus segment we discuss an special opportunity for investing in a company into which we have previously invested in their Seed round. Now we are investing in their just announced Series A. We can't name the company on the pod due to SEC 506c rules which limit public promotion to Accredited Investors , but we can discuss the impressive metrics and reasons why we're investing agai...