April 2023
Alline Akintore
For any generalist early-stage venture fund, an inherent challenge is how to get smart about potential investment opportunities across different industries, at any given funding stage. Funds take different approaches to solve for this. At OVF, our DNA unlocks this, and remains our competitive advantage – it's our collaborative model with our venture partners who have experience across multiple industries. We utilize their expertise in evaluating potential investments, and equally important, we are able to add value to founding teams as their company grows - from the first meeting through to the exit.
Let’s focus on one aspect of the diligence process, to bring highlight to this. When running due diligence and learning about a prospective investment, we work with a team of 3-5 individuals who are industry specialists, functional experts and at least one individual with deep early-stage investing experience. This team works alongside OVF management as we move through our diligence process.
Industry specialists are often current or former founders or startup execs, who understand the opportunities and idiosyncrasies of building a business from scratch in specific industries. Functional experts could be individuals with a wealth of experience in Human Resources, Finance, Marketing, Software Development, Leadership or Sales, ideally at companies or startups within, or adjacent to, the prospective investment’s industry. Our venture partners have years of investing experience, investing as angel investors, venture capitalists, investment bankers, to name a few and complement the investing expertise of the OVF management team in evaluating companies.
Others in venture capital are often intrigued by our model. At a typical venture fund, the general partners might take 30 minutes to 1 hour on calls with multiple people in their personal networks to quickly get their perspective on a startup’s approach to a market. In some cases, experts are paid to do deep dives and offer a point of view. Mega funds might have teams dedicated to research – in some cases, an army of individuals who have had careers in research and may not have the perspective of being in the arena, building companies in that space. Ultimately founders gain access to 1-2 members of the team during the process. To be clear, there is no right or wrong approach in this industry, as nuance and luck factor large.
For us at OVF, our model allows us to curate knowledge and learning, and perhaps more importantly, we believe our approach has the potential to deliver incredible value to founders. With our 3-5 experts at the table, and the OVF partnership, we may be able to provide customer introductions, recruit board members and/or key hires, and even answer strategy questions. And all of this occurs during diligence, before investing – regardless of whether we invest or not.
Founders: every interaction at the VC table should be about what the VC can offer you, as much as it is about them evaluating you and your business for an investment. Speed and depth of relationship are important – adding concrete value to your business should be included on your checklist.
If you are a founder in Oregon or Southern Washington, looking to grow a venture-scale business, reach out to us to determine if (and when) we are a good fit for each other.
Alline Akintore leads due diligence for OVF.