Inside a Student-Run Venture Fund: The Pioneer Venture Group Story

Transcript:

Jack Ingalls:

It is a student run fund that invests real capital into the Rocky Mountain region, focusing on seed and pre-seed stage companies.

Joshua Ross:

My name is Joshua Ross and welcome to the entrepreneurship at the U Podcast. In this episode, I sit down with members of the Pioneer Venture Group, the University of Student Led Investment Club. Joining me are Dr. John Sveta, one of the faculty advisors along with managing partners, Jack Ingles and Connor C. Together we dig into the story behind PBG, why it was created, how it operates, and what makes it such a unique opportunity for students interested in venture capital, early stage startups, and hands-on learning. If you ever wondered how a student run investment group actually works, from sourcing deals to due diligence to make an investment, this conversation Offers a clear look inside.

John Sebesta:

At the core, it’s an experiential learning lab opportunity where you really get to take the risk, make the judgment calls, and get face-to-face with those who are building our economy. Here’s

Joshua Ross:

My conversation with the team from the Pioneer Venture Group. Alright, gentlemen, welcome to the entrepreneurship at DU podcast. Very excited for this conversation today. So to kick us off, can you each briefly introduce yourselves and share a little bit about your background and your role with PBG Connor, since you’re on my right, we’ll start with you.

Connor Sieck:

Yeah, so my name is Connor Sikh. I’m a three L law student at the University of Denver. I’m also managing partner here at PVG. Been managing partner for about two years now. It’s been a great experience. When I came to law school, I knew I wanted to work in venture, so when I found out that PVG was kind of the student led fund at DUI didn’t really want to go anywhere else, so went to the school that gave me the best scholarship, so came here to du, really started mainly in public markets, traded options, futures. Still to this day I do that as well, but that’s what really got me into the privates. And then my dad is also an entrepreneur himself, two failed businesses. And then his third one was really the kind of go-getter that he got. And so seeing him go through that process really initiated my interest in entrepreneurship as well.

Jack Ingalls:

Great to be here. My name is Jack Engles. I’m in my second year, the MBA program here at du. My background before coming back from my MBA was in healthcare operations in a variety of settings. It was in the hospital, was in kind of the managed care side and was also most recently and in the later stage startup side of a home health provider. It was venture backed later stage. So got to gain experience just with our investors, see how they operate, see how they kind of guided the company’s operations and ultimately came back from my MBA, wanted to be on that side of the table as an investor. So joined PVG where I’m now a managing partner. And one of the things I do most with PVG right now is oversee our deal flow, that that top of the funnel and sourcing, getting relationships built with founders to come and pitch to the Pioneer Venture Group. Awesome.

John Sebesta:

Awesome. Thanks for having us. My name is John Esta. I’m an assistant professor of practice here at the University of Denver and the Koch Endowed Chair of entrepreneurship. And my background has been diverse from corporate finance to working as an entrepreneur. I’ve also been a general partner raising a small fund and investing as a limited partner. So I’ve seen the entrepreneurship world from a variety of different angles. And most recently I’ve been doing some more research into the early stage funding ecosystem and what enables funds to get to some entrepreneurs and not others and how we can unlock more capital for more of the great businesses that are here in our ecosystem.

Joshua Ross:

John, we’re going to start with you a little bit about, tell us a little bit about the origin story of Pioneer Venture Group, and I’ll refer to mainly as PVG. Why was it created and really how is it funded?

John Sebesta:

Yeah, so PVG was created back in 2019, thanks to a generous gift from the Burwell family. And it started really as in a partnership and a collaboration between the law school and the Daniels College of Business with the goal of enabling students to take on and actively manage a fund. Most education is focused traditionally on private markets and there hasn’t been a whole lot on early stage capital. And so this is a unique opportunity for students to develop the domain expertise around early stage investing as well as the judgment because ultimately investing is a judgment business and designed as a student managed fund, the students get to make those investment decisions and so they really get to build the judgment around it.

Joshua Ross:

So I’d like to hear from each of you and have a sentence or two. How would you describe PVG Jack? We’ll start with you

Jack Ingalls:

In a sentence. It’s a student run fund that invests real capital into the Rocky Mountain region focusing on seed and pre-seed stage companies. And it’s maybe in a shorter sentence, an opportunity for students to gain real life exposure into venture investing.

Connor Sieck:

Awesome.

Jack Ingalls:

Connor?

Connor Sieck:

Yeah, I would say it’s a true learning experience and also you get in what you put out. So we really like our students to be really, really involved and we want them to get the most out of it as they can.

John Sebesta:

Yeah, I mean, I think I’ve already said most of it, but I think at the core it’s an experiential learning lab opportunity where you really get to take the risk, make the judgment calls, and get face-to-face with those who are building our economy.

Joshua Ross:

So Jack, what makes PVG unique compared to other student finance focus clubs and programs?

Jack Ingalls:

I think what I would say first and foremost is kind of its interdisciplinary membership. We have folks represented from the Stern College of Law, Daniels College of Business, whether that be MBA programs, master’s in accounting, master’s in quantitative finance, et cetera. We have undergraduate membership. And I think that’s a really unique structure that’s not always common at student run funds. It brings a wealth of diversified knowledge to our diligence and how we look at prospective companies. And on top of that, I think we have kind of a purpose-driven thesis that’s generalist in nature, but we look for companies that meet a variety of investment criteria but also align with DU and fund value, so to speak.

Joshua Ross:

So John, I know you’re very much interested in focus on experiential as a faculty member, so putting on your investing and venture capital hat, what kind of gaps or opportunities does PBG address for students at DU from an experiential perspective?

John Sebesta:

So much of education, we approach from a domain knowledge that you need to acquire and that you can acquire through listening and regurgitation and private investing doesn’t operate that way. You need the domain knowledge, and yet that’s not enough. And so in the design of PVG, we’ve incorporated some traditional coursework to provide that domain knowledge and some of the technical expertise. But then the gap that we’re filling is getting the network to understand who are the other players in the ecosystem. So working closely with partners like Rocky’s Venture Club, the Denver Angels, some of the other investing groups that come in and speak to the club, as well as getting the opportunity to build the judgment expertise by listening to those pitches, having to do the due diligence, get to know the founder, because investing at the seed and pre-seed stage is inherently risky and uncertain. Entrepreneurship is about making decisions under uncertainty. And in this stage we don’t have robust financials to analyze and make predictions and do discounted cash flows. And so it’s much more of a values-based judgment decision and you can only build that knowledge and that expertise by engaging in it and really doing it. And so the students have the opportunity make those judgment calls, and I think that that’s unlike anything you could replicate in a simulation or a traditional classroom.

Joshua Ross:

So Connor, you’re kind of the gray hair in the room. And when I say that is you’ve been around the longest of the guests today, so I’m going to throw the big one at you. The big question, walk us through how the fund is structured, governed and also how capital is managed within the fund.

Connor Sieck:

So the way that it’s structured is, so when we come in, we have about 25 total members. We initiated, they used to just be general partners and managing partners. We’ve initiated an associate program. So for anybody who’s interested, who doesn’t really know what venture is, we kind of allow them to come in, see what it’s like, and we try to get them to go through either the venture law class at the law school or we have them take the venture sprint at the DU program. So then what we do is we try to focus on making investments that are anywhere between 10 to 25,000. And so the main focus of PVG and the way it’s structured is we try to make small investments in a companies that we believe are going to make a return. Many venture funds focus on LPs and they give returns to the LPs. What PVG does is we call it an evergreen fund. So an evergreen fund is any return that you make from an actual investment goes back into the fund. So any investment that we get a return on goes straight back into the fund and we can reinvest more money into newer companies.

Joshua Ross:

Where are the decision points of stopping or deciding to move forward or saying what to the startup this isn’t the right fit?

Connor Sieck:

It can be a little bit of a difficult process as everybody knows this is a student-led fund. So I think really the first part where we try to focus is the educational part of what PVG is. And so maybe before we even get an investment, one of the focuses that we do is we make all new members do a deal memo on either a portfolio company that we have currently or a company that we had passed on. One of the main points of that is to really make them go into a due diligence process and what to look for. So that may be an IRR that we follow, which is about 30%, any type of the raise that they’re doing. So we mainly do safe rounds, so it what’s the valuation cap, what’s the discount rate on that safe note? And then after that, what we really focus on is it a fit for PVG, we really try to focus on maybe student led or student founded companies within the Denver ecosystem, whether that be from graduates from Boulder or graduates from du.

We’ve had a couple DU students pitch to us before and it’s been a great experience for them. And then another thing that we really try to focus on is are they a company we want to invest in to where we feel like they can grow within the fund and we feel like we have a benefit for them. Secondly, when we look at a data room, we really try to focus on the main points. Some of these companies that come in pre-seed, they don’t really have a great sized data room. One thing that my focus is do they maybe have a pipeline? So maybe if they have a few customers that they’re talking to, what’s their cap table look like? Do they have many people on the cap table? How many safes do they have? Maybe outstanding. It’s a really kind of intricate way to think about where our investment is going to land at the end of the day. And so the real focus for us is making sure that we can see a future with that company and making sure that we are doing our diligence and how they can benefit from us as well.

Joshua Ross:

So Jack, based on that and the fact that PVG has a maximum investment size of 25,000, what stage companies do you all target? And based on the makeup of the group, are there certain industries or sectors that you focus on?

Jack Ingalls:

I think it’s important that PVG keeps a generalist focus and keep the top of the funnel open to any and all founders that are in the Colorado or Rocky Mountain region that are building and building well, regardless of their industry, we’ve had pitches from a variety. Our portfolio is pretty diverse right now. We’ve had pitches in the health tech space or just broad life sciences. We’ve had it just in e-commerce, food and beverage, et cetera. So I think for our benefit, and given our check size of 10 to $25,000 in a prese or seed stage round, keeping it general is important, keeps our focus on the broader Colorado market and what founders are building in our ecosystem. And it kind of allows PVG from the learning perspective and opportunity to see a wide variety. I like John’s comment a lot on the name of the game is a little bit how do you make judgment with limited information? And at this stage, a pre-seed or a C stage company, if you get financials from them and you’re interpreting their rapid growth, if you are evaluating their ip, it’s always going to be a little bit of a mixed bag on their journey. So it’s important to see how different companies respond to that. And I think at the end of the day, what PVG loves to see regardless of company as a strong founder and a strong founding team.

Joshua Ross:

So you look at strong founders first industry second, where does a problem solution fit into that continuum?

Jack Ingalls:

If the founding or the founder and the founding team is not someone that we feel compatible with or one that we fully believe in, that’s an immediate deal breaker. So maybe I would prioritize that before an industry and then I think even almost before industry at this stage, and it’s a moving target depending on what’s going on in the market and whatnot, but at the stage we invest in, there are a million different red flags that can come up in our diligence. To Connor’s point, we’ve done what we can to build a robust systematized approach to our due diligence efforts and in such a way that we can quickly uncover immediate red flags, whether their cash burn is more accelerated than we’d like if they’re intellectual property is not as protected as we would like or we were led to believe, things of that nature.

Joshua Ross:

Okay. So John, you and Conrad are the faculty advisors for PVG and you are part of the investment decision making process. Where does the faculty advisor fit in terms of guiding but also providing student autonomy through the process?

John Sebesta:

It’s a really important aspect of the design of the group in that we are not voting members in the investment decision. It’s a student run club and the students choose what they will invest in. We take more of a Socratic approach in terms of how can we provide the right structures, ask the right questions to make sure that the students have what they need in order to run the fund. Well navigate those uncertainties and explore and discover those red flags. And so I think our job is to equip the students who are running it, the managing partners as well as the general partners, and make sure that they have those resources, they have the right knowledge in order to operate the fund effectively while trying to stay out of the investment decision and also keep them out of some of the bureaucracy and how to navigate all of those challenges.

Joshua Ross:

So Connor and Jackson, I’d like to hear from both of you of you on this one. It’ll be interesting from a business school perspective and a law school student perspective, what’s the most valuable skill or insight you’ve gained from this process? Evaluate investing and you’re investing in real companies with real money. Connor, I’ll start with you.

Connor Sieck:

Yeah, I would say probably the biggest insight is coming in how much knowledge you actually don’t have.

You can read as many books as you’d like, you can take as many courses you would like, but you don’t actually get the experience until you actually invest in a company and do an actual diligence. So that’s definitely insight number one. Insight number two is just the overall experience that I’ve had. It’s led to plenty of opportunities for me. It led me to working at Ensemble Innovation Ventures, which was another great experience that I had. And being able to get that experience gives me the experience to then teach and show others how to maybe look at a pitch deck, maybe go through a data room, and maybe how to do a due diligence.

Jack Ingalls:

I’d echo that to start being able through PVG to go from zero to wherever I am now, from a skillset perspective, I think what that has offered is just from twofold. On one side, the kind of hard skills that VC that are necessary in VC from modeling and evaluation to market analysis, et cetera. But on the other side, being able to build and establish relationships within the ecosystem with founders and other investors has been invaluable. Something I’m very grateful for.

John Sebesta:

As you guys were talking earlier, I was thinking we’re going to have to include some show notes with definitions as you’re rattling off terms like safe and cap table and LPs and gps. And so it’s fun to see the domain knowledge that these terms are all now second nature and things that you can use in casual conversation where that’s not that common.

Joshua Ross:

So Connor, this is your second year as managing partner. This doesn’t happen very often to have managing partners, but what I’d like to understand from you over the course of basically a year and a half, you’re in your second year, what have been some of the biggest challenges running student-led VC fund, and what are some of the things you’ve done to kind of overcome these?

Connor Sieck:

Yeah, so one of the things that I touched on earlier that we really wanted to change was as a gp, you have a voting, you’re a voting member, A PBG, and same with a managing partner. You have voting as well. And so one of the issues that we had is that we would have gps come in, but they had no knowledge of venture at all. And so they were voting on companies when they didn’t really know what to look for. And so one thing as managing partner that we really focused on or that I focused on was bringing on associates. Maybe they didn’t have a background at vc, maybe they have just a general knowledge of finance in general, and we wanted them to come in, be a part of the group, look at pitches, maybe join a diligence team, but they don’t have the voting rights.

And so we really wanted to get them to dive deep into what venture was and what it really took to maybe be a venture investor. And so that was the main focus that we had. Obviously another challenge as being a managing partner is getting people to just show up to meetings. Oftentimes with student led funds, it’s kind of a resume pattern. They just kind of come in and they’re like, Hey, I really want to join PBG, I want to do all of these things, but they don’t actually put in the time. And so that has been a really big challenge I think for us for this year. And we really want to try to focus on making sure that we get people in that we really want. And so one of the things we used to have about 30 total members, we’ve really tried to dive that down to about 20, oftentimes the more people that you have, it can be really hard to gather everybody together and really focus on the mission and the drive that PVG has.

So those are, I would say the two main challenges. I would say another challenge is we all know that whether you’re an MBA student or a law student, you have a lot of obligations in regards to school or a job. And so one of the things that we try to do at PVG is really make sure that the time that you’re spending with us is very educational and you’re getting the experience that you need. I know for me, oftentimes it can be very difficult when you have finals or when you have, maybe you have a midterm. And so we try to keep the total coursework in PVG to about maybe max four hours per week. It may extend beyond that if we’re doing a diligence, but we really want to focus on navigating your personal responsibilities with the responsibilities of PVG as well.

Joshua Ross:

So how is that structured then between managing partners, general partners and observers? How is that broken out? And then within that, how can you assign responsibilities? Obviously the managing partners have responsibilities, and I’d like you to go into that a little bit, but then the general partners, how do you divide some of those kind of marketing or administrative tasks?

Connor Sieck:

Yeah, so one thing that we’ve initiated, and this was one thing that I really worked on last year, was trying to divvy up what each managing partner focused on. So for example, for me, I’m head of portfolio companies, so I talk to the founders that are within the portfolio. Currently I get all the investor updates. So what I will do is I will grab those investor updates, put ’em in a quick PowerPoint slide, and I’ll kind of go through where that company is in its lifecycle. And then we also have an operations. So Chris, who’s not here currently, he does operations. So operations is kind of more of the marketing and reaching out to maybe potential donors. And then obviously you have Jack here, he’s had of due diligence. So he does a lot of the deal flow that we do, and he kind of does the first impression of, Hey, do we want to maybe bring this company into pitch?

So those are the main parts of what managing partners do In regards to general partners, because we have three core initiatives that we want to focus on, which is head portfolios operations and deal flow. We want to get the GPS under the managing partners to then do the jobs of maybe the mps that they aren’t able to do. So for example, head of portfolio companies, what I’ll do is I’ll give maybe five members each portfolio company that we have, and I want them to do an initial investment summary, so then they can give that investment summary for me that then I can put that into the PowerPoint slide that I had. And so we really try to get GPS invested into what each managing partner is doing, especially because of the turnover when everybody graduates in maybe two or three years, we want those gps to get experience to then become mps in the fund.

So overall, the duties of the GPS is to really, really help the managing partners, but also to just get that learning experience to then become managing partners as an associate or as an observer. I would say the focus is, again, not what a GP does, but really just kind of sitting there and be like, okay, let me digest all the information that I just got and let me kind of figure out what I like. And so whether you like operations better, maybe you deal flow. I know most of our members really, really want to do deal flow. That’s obviously how we make most of our investments is deal flow. So we have a little bit more members on that side.

Joshua Ross:

Will you both tell me a little bit about one or two companies PGS invested in recently? What drove the decision where they stand right now, have they been successful?

Jack Ingalls:

So two that come to mind. These are investments made last spring. One was called Wave By for all intents and purposes, a women’s health company that’s focused on non-hormonal supplements for menstrual symptoms. They do development and distribution. They’ve made a lot of progress on their journey and we invested in them, I want to say end of last February. Another one that was invested later in the spring is called dx. What they have done is develop a diagnostic earbud device for sleep testing that can be done in the home or outside of a traditional sleep lab. And they have a tremendous amount of IP and they’ve developed a great product. So that investment also occurred. I think some of the shared characteristics, so to speak, that drove our decision were the founders, Barton Margot, they’re both great, both live and Breathe. Their company’s very invested, have background within the specific focus of their business, deep background, and both had pretty impressive traction in their efforts as well as some of those other kind of intangibles such as IP and whatnot.

So a lot of that drove our investment decision. But I think at the end of the day too, what you’ll see a lot of times in a pitch or in a shared data room when we’re running a diligence is not necessarily overinflated projections or overly optimistic view of the obtainable market, but both of these founders were very dialed in, very realistic in who they were targeting with what problem and what solution. They had reasonable projections that we felt were fair and appropriate and in line with the traction and progress that they had already achieved. So that was refreshing to see. Again, we believe in both of these companies, they’re continuing to build and we’re excited to see how they continue. We’ve worked over the past several years, I think just as a fund to bake in information rights into our terms of investments. So that enables us now to better than ever just check in with them quarterly, have a better idea of how they’re progressing, any new strategic advancements or roadblocks so we can kind stay in lockstep with their progress

Joshua Ross:

Being in the room for both of those pitches. I was very impressed by the founders, and kind of going back to what you said earlier, Jack, in terms of looking at are these rockstar founders and can they execute on it? If I remember correctly, that came out of the University of Colorado Boulder ecosystem, right? It did. Which is pretty cool too. So there’s a little synergy between the colleges.

Connor Sieck:

Yeah, and what was cool with Bart was he was actually a patent attorney for a while, and then he went into the investment side at the Mayo Clinic. And so he was actually a VC in the healthcare ecosystem. And so he saw plenty of companies come through that were in the healthcare system and being able to have that knowledge of what to look for, not only as a vc, but now coming over as a founder really gives insight into maybe how to navigate maybe fundraising or really how to navigate, Hey, who do I really want to look for as a partner when it comes to a vc?

Joshua Ross:

And is it Margo, a doctor in Women’s Health? Correct.

Connor Sieck:

Yes.

Joshua Ross:

So the, I’m not

Jack Ingalls:

Mistaken, an OB GYN. Yeah.

Joshua Ross:

Yeah, she’s an OB GYN. So you have two founders that you can connect to what they’re trying to solve and their passion around it, which I think is so incredibly important. It answers that why. Alright, so I’m going to wrap up with a couple questions. John, we’re going to start with you. I want to know your long-term vision for PVG over the next five to 10 years and just how you look at finance within the University of Denver ecosystem. And then also, this is a big question, how is it going to impact the front range innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem?

John Sebesta:

Yeah, it’s a great question and a big one, especially as the newest member to PPG. First off, I would say it’s incredible what the group’s been able to do. Started 2019, we had a little pandemic in the middle that kind of rocked all in-person pitching and meetings, and yet the group has been able to sustain and grow and make some really good investments and put those systems in place in order to have that transfer of domain knowledge and expertise. And so really proud of what the group has been able to do so far and building that knowledge, that expertise, and started to place students into both internships and full-time roles out in the ecosystem here. So I think that’s a huge thing that’s been done so far as I think about it more broadly and how it fits into finance and everything overall and the ecosystem here. Traditionally our educational systems have focused around public markets and corporate finance. And so these are your big household names and they trade on the New York Stock Exchange or the nasdaq, and it makes sense. Those are massive markets with tons of money around them and where most of the jobs are yet educational systems have largely ignored private capital markets. So I think that there’s an opportunity to focus not only in the VC space, but also expand that out. The private equity market’s about a $9 trillion market VCs, about 1.7 trillion of that.

And so we can start to explore how do we train people to go out into those roles? Because again, our educational systems don’t do that formally. Historically, if you’re going to go into a role in private equity or in venture capital, you generally have to know somebody who is in that space that’s largely network driven, and that limits the diversity. It limits who can get into those roles. And so as we think about the future, the goal really is to build on what the group has already done in how can we provide more curriculum, more opportunities to develop that domain knowledge and the technical expertise that are foundational to being able to operate in this space. And then how can we increase the opportunities to build the relevant networks because again, this industry that’s more important even than most and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.

So how can we create the opportunities for our students to get out and really get to know all of the players in the ecosystem? And I come back to developing that judgment to be able to make those calls because the conversations I’ve had with private equity investors and venture capitalists in the front range, what I’ve heard is that a lot of students lack the conviction. I can go, I can run my numbers, I can do my spreadsheet, I can put together my plan DU. Students are known for being able to present pretty well, but that ability to say, I believe we should invest in this company and here’s why and I’m going to stand behind it or we shouldn’t either way, but having true conviction. And I think that this group creates an opportunity to develop that in a really unique way. And so want to explore how we can grow that then to the element of how do we impact the ecosystem?

I always go back to universities have two mandates, and one of those is to disseminate knowledge. And that’s what we’ve been talking about of how can we educate students to step into this space. But then the other role of a university is to create new knowledge. And one of the things we’ve heard a few times is are the companies vc backable, do they fit the VC model? And the reality is only about 1% of startups actually fit a VC model. And there’s lots of interesting compelling early stage companies that have growth potential but don’t necessarily fit to a VC model. And so one of the things that I want to do with the group is look at how we can be a thought leader in the ecosystem in exploring potentially alternative investment structures that open the aperture and make us more generalist and able to support even more interesting compelling founders that have that founder fit and their why but don’t necessarily fit a VC model.

And so I think that in connecting with some of the other players in the ecosystem, we’re going to continue to be a small fund. We want to grow that fund, but we’re going to continue to be a small fund, but as we can build out those connections in industry and get co-investors, I think there’s a real potential to grow and impact the whole space and innovate in it. Where venture was the last major investment, major innovation in early stage capital, and that was in the 1970s. And so there’s opportunity to continue innovating, and I think that as a university we’re well positioned to take some of those risks and do some of that innovation.

Joshua Ross:

I love that answer. I love that whole idea of just still building that connective tissue throughout the front range when I bring up that investment and connecting up with Boulder and just these different areas. I mean, it’s just kind of a rising tide raises all boats, right? And I think Foundry Group I always look at is kind of the north star of where we all want to go, and they really started it here and it’s like it’s all here and available. It’s just a matter of what we all decide to do with it. All right, so Connor and Jackson, you’re five, six years into your careers super successful. We pull you back to campus, you’re networking with a new group of PVG members, and what does PVG look like at that point? What kind of impact will PVG have? How is its growth? What does it look like? What is it doing? How is it known in this front range community? Based on what John was just talking about?

Jack Ingalls:

I like the question because the answer is I walk into the room in a PVG meeting five, six years from now. I see a group that’s 10 times better than we are today. Their approach is systematized. They have structure that we’re working to keep building out right now, but I think more importantly, they are fully embedded within the Denver ecosystem in a way that we’ve kind of worked to lay the foundation for in such a way that there’s opportunity for PVG to, we don’t lead invest, but maybe down the road for certain early stage companies. We could be a trusted lead investor or we could be a partner of choice for follow on investments and co-investments with other established investors in town.

Connor Sieck:

One thing that I really would like to see is a huge alumni network. I know some of the people that are in the network. I talked to plenty, Becky and who’s part of SPZ Legal, she was actually one of the creators of founders of PBG. And I talked to her constantly and she always asks, Hey, if there’s anything I can do for PVG, just let me know. And so I really think that in five years, I really hope that the alumni network is broader. And not only that, but I hope that I can come back and be in one of the meetings just like what Adam Burroughs just did and present to the group and be like, Hey, this is the experience that I have, and if you have any questions about my time at PVG, that would be super important. Another thing too is just being able to get the word out about PVG and being able to not only write 10 to 20 5K checks, but maybe a company is raising a series A and be able to do a follow-on round.

I think that would be super important because it really shows what we are looking for with our founders and what we want to do and how we can help them in the future of their life and really focus in on what PVG is about and what we focus on. And hopefully many of the entrepreneurs that are invested in actually come from the DU and CU ecosystem. That’s one thing that we’re really, really trying to focus on. Now. I know I reached out to a couple people from the local base camp here at du, and it’s funny because some don’t really have an idea yet, and some really do, but the importance is that they have the drive to start something on their own. And whether you think the pitch is going to be bad or not, we want you to come in because we want to be able to give you that feedback. And so I think just the communal part, I really hope to see in the future of PVG.

Joshua Ross:

I love both those answers. That is one of my hopes. We’ve had a couple DU startups in the room and they deserve to be in the room, which was awesome, but we haven’t written that check yet. No, I can’t wait for the day when I hear that that first check is written to a startup that’s come out of the DU ecosystem and it will happen. Gentlemen, thank you for your time today, and thank you for making me a little bit smarter. The entrepreneurship at DU podcast was recorded in the media studio in the Daniels College of Business on the University of Denver campus. You can find us on Instagram at DU Entrepreneur on LinkedIn, at DU Entrepreneur, and on Facebook at entrepreneurship at du. This episode was produced and engineered by Harrison Tarr and hosted by Joshua.