Venture In The South

In this interview, Paul talks with Josh Miller, the CEO of Gradient Health about how they are solving the problem of clean data for training and validating AI algorithms. Gradient aggregates medical imaging data from around the world with associated variable amounts of metadata that increases the value of the data to the algorithm builders. Josh is a 3rd time founder and previously has a solid exi...

Listen to David on SC Public Radio on 8/19/22 talk about how to get into angel investing without losing your shirt.  Follow David on X at https://x.com/DGRollingSouth Connect On LinkedIn with David at https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidgrisell/ Follow Paul on X at https: / /x.com/PalmettoAngel Connect On LinkedIn with Paul at https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulclarkprivateequity/ We invite your feedbac...

In this interview, David talks with Thomas Spencer, the CEO of WasteWizer about the problem they are solving and their unique solution, The Bin Bar. This is a solid state scale that fits under one end of a waste bin or container and provides an IoT data feed on weight. Thomas reviews how it works, how they make money, their customer pipeline and the IP that protects their innovation. Venture Carol...

This interview with Josh Rollins explores the Crowd Investing platform offered by Vicinity. We talk about how CrowdInvesting works under Regulation CF on the Vicinity platform, both for investors and issuers or owners. This investing option is relevant for both non-accredited and accredited investors and focuses primarily on local/regional real estate investments and secondarily on established rev...

In this episode, David and Paul take a deep dive into all aspects of angel investing for investors with experience. We talk about the ins and outs of serious startup investing, some tricks of the trade, and some suggestions on how investors can improve their chances for successful exits.  Follow David on X at https://x.com/DGRollingSouth Connect On LinkedIn with David at https://www.linkedin.com/i...

In this episode, David and Paul review the basics of angel investing for investors new to startup investing. We keep it pretty short and sweet while hitting the main issues and pitfalls. We also offer some solutions to get started without excess risk.  Follow David on X at https://x.com/DGRollingSouth Connect On LinkedIn with David at https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidgrisell/ Follow Paul on X at h...

This interview with the CEO of Bublish reviews the strategy of applying AI to mostly automate publishing in the fastest growing segment of Publishing, Author Self-publishing. Bublish is an established publisher with positive cash flow, now planning a transition to SaaS model leveraging AI to mostly automate the publishing experience. Kathy explains how this new model brings greater control and rev...

This interview with the CEO of MemberHub highlights innovation for school organizations. MemberHub solves school-level problems through state PTAs with cloud-based membership technology, shared CRM interfaced to district student information system (SIS), GoFundMe like donations, school E-Stores that can bring in national suppliers, sponsorships in newsletters & school E-Stores and Shopping Mar...

If your angel investing portfolio doesn't always generate QSBS returns that are free from capital gains, what approaches are available for reducing your tax burden on gains? Wealth advisors Doug English and Wes Johnson teach us about "direct indexing" - how you can tweak your approach to investing in public equities to generate tax losses that you can use to offset angel investing g...

Investor Tax Credits and Tax Exclusions are important incentives to startup investors which help mitigate some of the risk with these investments. David and Paul review the use of state tax credits in those Southern states that offer them and how out-of-state investors monetize these credits. The South Carolina Angel Investor Tax Credit is reviewed in detail as an example of how these credits work...

Today’s episode is part 2 of our End of Year Updates, updating some of the portfolio investments that we covered this year. In this show, we update 3 more portfolio companies: PunchListUSA, CaseStatus, and HealthyCell. We discuss some of the issues that affect their revenue growth and progress to profitability.  Follow David on X at https://x.com/DGRollingSouth Connect On LinkedIn with David at ht...

Today’s episode is  part 1 of a 2 part series on End of Year Updates, updating some of the portfolio investments that we covered this year. In this episode, we update 3 portfolio investments: Iconic Moments, Zylo Therapeutics & 6amCity. We discuss some of the issues that affect their revenue growth and progress to profitability.  Follow David on X at https://x.com/DGRollingSouth Connect On Lin...

Prashant Prabhu retired from Michelin after a 35-year corporate career that covered R&D, a corporate incubator, and international business in Europe, India, and Singapore. Prashant articulates his investing as "21st-century philanthropy" - putting the societal and technological benefits of early-stage investing first, and seeing the closely-related financial benefits following. We ex...

In this episode, our host interviews Nick Mottas, Co-founder and CEO of HopDrive, a Gig-Economy Vehicle Delivery and Acquisition Platform. HopDrive matches vehicle move requests to their network of gig-economy drivers on-demand, solving a big problem for auto dealers and fleet operators. With over 10x YoY growth in MRR HopDrive is positioning for dramatic growth and just completed a Series A Raise...

This episode is about the effect that Crypto Exchange Failures may or may not have on Crypto infrastructure startups. We are not talking about Crypto prices, but about the businesses that support Crypto. Our host David has long favored investing in the Crypto Infrastructure rather than Crypto Currency, so listen to these founders at the leading edge of Crypto. Hear their thoughts on the Exchange F...

In this episode, our hosts discuss startup fund investment result metrics and help listeners understand how to compare results from one fund to another. Then we present our own 8-year results from 2014 to 2022, including the Gross DPI (Distributed Paid In equity), Net DPI, RVPI (Residual Value of Paid In equity), and the TVPI (Total Value of Paid In equity). We discuss the role of IRR (Internal Ra...

Should angel investors "follow-on" by investing a second time in an existing investment? Should VCs "double down" on their winners? There are no clear answers, but in this episode we think about how to answer these questions. Follow David on X at https://x.com/DGRollingSouth Connect On LinkedIn with David at https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidgrisell/ Follow Paul on X at https: /...

In this interview, our host talks with Rich West, CEO of Baebies, a medical diagnostics company harnessing a proprietary technological evolution of microfluidics to make point-of-care diagnostic testing better, cheaper, and faster than the competition.  Follow David on X at https://x.com/DGRollingSouth Connect On LinkedIn with David at https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidgrisell/ Follow Paul on X at...

Gary Shiffman is a company founder, economics PhD, academic, writer, and angel investor. He shares with Paul some of how his professional and research experiences helped his angel investing activities - and what lessons he has learned from angel investing that he would have used in his prior capital-raising efforts. Check out Gary's books including The Economics of Violence ( available here )...

This Part 2 show presents the remaining companies from the 10 finalists from The Next Venture Pitch Summit. I'm doing quick interviews with each CEO using a '6 Questions in 6 Minutes' format to understand the problem, solution, market, traction, timing, and funding dynamics of each. These companies will give listeners a taste of the robust startup deal flow we see here in the South....

In part 1 of this 2 part series, we showcase 5 of the top 10 finalists from 90 startup companies competing to present at the NEXT Venture Summit held here in Greenville, SC. Our host David interviews each CEO using a '6 Questions in 6 Minutes' format to understand the problem, solution, market, traction, timing, and funding dynamics of each. A Part 2 show will  include the remaining top...

Malay Shah has been angel investing in early-stage companies in the southeast for nearly 25 years. In this episode, we explore how the "capital markets" have changed - and how angel investing has not changed - over those years.  Follow David on X at https://x.com/DGRollingSouth Connect On LinkedIn with David at https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidgrisell/ Follow Paul on X at https: / /x.com...

In this interview, we talk with co-founder and CEO Andrew Elliott about how RoundlyX enables users to purchase digital assets with spare change roundups to create a dollar cost averaging approach to acquiring digital assets. He reviews their relationship with crypto platforms, consumers, and the impact of the current crypto winter on their business. RoundlyX is on track for >1.5x YoY revenue gr...

In this episode, Paul and David review some of their experiences with bullying, opportunistic actions, duplicity and rarely outright fraud. While these things are not common in our experience, they do happen. We try to provide useful guidance for both Angels and Founders on how to avoid and minimize these risks. This underscores our general emphasis on good diligence in investing since it's m...

Matt Bailey, VentureSouth's market leader in Greensboro NC, provides some of his greatest contributions to angel investing from serving on the boards of early-stage companies. In today's episode, he shares some of his experiences mentoring CEOs, serving as a sounding board, providing ideas and connections, and keeping a board operating cohesively even during challenging times. Follow Dav...