Venture in the Middle: John Tough, Energize Ventures Managing Partner On Investing in Industrials in the Midwest

Continuing his series on building an enduring investment firm, Mistral Venture Partners Founding Partner, Code Cubitt, sat down with JMI Equity Founder and Managing GP, Harry Gruner, to discuss his advice for building a firm for the long-term. Harry Gruner is the Managing Partner at JMI Equity, a growth equity firm focused on investing in leading software companies. He has been working with software companies for more than 30 years, having had the privilege of participating in the growth of the software industry from its infancy to where it is today.

Continuing his series on building an enduring investment firm, Mistral Venture Partners Founding Partner, Code Cubitt, sat down with Greenspring Associates Venture Capitalist, Chuck Newhall, to discuss the lessons learned building a 100-year firm. Chuck Newhall is a Chairman Emeritus at Greenspring Associates, a leading global venture capital investment firm that offers institutional and individual investors a comprehensive platform dedicated to the asset class.

Continuing his series on building an enduring investment firm, Mistral Venture Partners Founding Partner, Code Cubitt, sat down with Sozo Ventures Managing Director, Phil Wickham, to discuss what makes a winning VC culture. Phil Wickham is the Managing Director at Sozo Ventures, which invests in category leaders in advanced data technologies, eCommerce, enterprise cloud, fintech, IoT, and healthcare IT, among other emerging sectors. In addition to Sozo, Mr. Wickham serves as the Executive Chairman of the Kauffman Fellows.

Continuing his series on building an enduring investment firm, Mistral Venture Partners Founding Partner, Code Cubitt, sat down with Aligned Partners Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Susan Mason, to discuss how venture capital has evolved during her career. Susan Mason is the Managing Partner and Co-Founder at Aligned Partners, which invests in highly capital efficient start-ups in the IT area. Before co-founding Aligned Partners, she spent 15 years with ONSET Ventures, a venture capital firm with $1 billion under management focused on early-stage investing.

Continuing his series on building an enduring investment firm, Mistral Venture Partners Founding Partner, Code Cubitt, sat down with TorQuest Partners Sr. Managing Partner, Brent Belzberg, to discuss how he’s developed and grown his investment team. Brent Belzberg is the Senior Managing Partner at TorQuest Partners, a Canadian-based manager of private equity funds with a proven track record in identifying and building value in a diversified portfolio of companies. With over $2 billion of equity capital under management, TorQuest Partners  pursues investments in middle-market–later-stage companies with the goal of building value through opportune acquisitions, strategic leadership, and the timely use of financial expertise.

To kick off his series on building an enduring investment firm, Mistral Venture Partners Founding Partner, Code Cubitt, sat down with Floodgate Co-Founder and Partner, Mike Maples, to discuss his transition from entrepreneur to investor and how he got his start investing in lean startups. Mike Maples is the Co-Founder and Partner at Floodgate, which invests in the extraordinary top "point 1 percent" companies earlier than anyone else and provides as much help as possible in realizing extraordinary outcomes.

This series of interviews by Maggie Kenefake, Venture Partner with Royal Street Ventures, focuses on investing in the Midwest. In this episode, Maggie talks with John Tough, Managing Partner at Energize Ventures in Chicago, on his company’s focus on digital transformation of energy and industrial markets and focus on emerging tech and capital-intensive industries.

This series of interviews by Maggie Kenefake, Venture Partner with Royal Street Ventures, focuses on investing in the Midwest. In this episode, Maggie talks with Ginger Rothrock, Senior Director at HG Ventures, a VC firm based in Indianapolis with the resources of 100 year-old multi-billion dollar industrial, Heritage Group Companies, behind it. Ginger invests in companies involved in software but also and most often in hardtech and physical innovation, including heavy construction materials, specialty chemicals, and environmental services. More specifically, the company invests in entrepreneurs working in those core industrial business areas, helping to connect the resources Heritage Group can give entrepreneurs to generate better outcomes and better returns.

This episode finds Maggie Kenefake, Venture Partner with Royal Street Ventures, continuing her series of talks with Roy Bahat, a Partner at Bloomberg Beta. The company, Roy said, is a small firm that invests only for financial return, not as a strategic investor. They’re exclusively focused on the future of work and everything relating to modern business.

In this series, Maggie Kenefake, Venture Partner with Royal Street Ventures, talked with investors about the untapped potential for venture capital in the Midwest. This episode features Google alum Mary Grove revealing why her newish startup, Bread and Butter Investors, focuses on three specific industries of food tech, health tech, and enterprise software.