Portfolio Pitch Startup Blogpost

Chris spent the beginning of his career building companies as a founder, an experience that he attributes to his success as an investor. Range Ventures was born out of the desire to grow Colorado into the next billion-dollar market over the next 10 years. On today's episode, Emily and Chris chat about why Range would pass on a deal, the Range field trip, and how they use empathy as their value add.

Michael Mizrahi was born and raised in Los Angeles and never plans on leaving. After finishing college at USC, Michael wanted to explore venture capital and discovered Wavemaker Partners. Based out of Santa Monica, Wavemaker is a cross-border venture fund with headquarters in the US and Asia. On today's episode, Emily and Michael chat about how Michael got into venture, 3-D printed rocketships and why you should become an expert in a certain field.

As a military kid and curious adult, Gavin Christensen found himself in many places before settling back into Utah around 2007, where he had the idea of a firm that catered towards the mountain west region. After a rocky start, Kickstart is now the most active investor in Utah. On today's episode, Gavin sits down with Emily to discuss Kickstarts funds, why storytelling is crucial to a successful pitch deck, and the importance of playing the long game.

Eunice was born in Cameroon and moved to the US to pursue higher education. After graduating from Louisiana Tech, Eunice worked as a Product Consultant and Analyst at Apple before starting her first company, DataGig. Eunice would soon become a serial entrepreneur and an investor advocating for African founders. In today's conversation, Eunice and Emily discuss Eunice’s impressive background, a couple of her favorite port co’s, and she shares her tips for overcoming rejection for both founders and investors.

Haley was educated in Accounting and Finance at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. Beginning her career by working in Strategy, and Analytics, Haley helped build out TrunkClub and later, Mac + Mia’s strategy before pivoting into venture. On today’s conversation, Emily and Haley discuss being a woman in VC, some tips for founders, StartingLines exciting portfolio company's and why you should be your own advocate

Natty grew up in Boulder, Colorado and attended the University of Maryland where he ran track and studied Finance. Before diving into the finance world, Natty and his childhood best friend built a company to help travelers record and share their trips with friends and family after returning home from a backpacking trip abroad. They scaled and sold that company to AOL and Natty, now bit by the entrepreneurship bug, began his career as Managing Director at Boulder Techstars. In today's, episode Natty walks Emily through his journey from entrepreneur to investor, why pivoting is encouraged, and Natty’s personal philosophy for living a good life.