For this article and audio recording I interviewed Grady Buchanan, Co-Founder & Managing Director at NVNG Investment Advisors, a venture capital firm based in Milwaukee.
NVNG stands for Nothing Ventured Nothing Gained. It comes from the team’s roots at the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF).
The NVNG fund is ~$50M and raised from Wisconsin corporations.
NVNG invests in venture capital managers, not directly into startups.
The NVNG portfolio includes ~24 venture funds and ~430 startups.
Grady created +Venture North, an invite only event that brings venture funds, corporate investment groups, family offices, and more to Milwaukee every fall for the past four years. Experience Milwaukee is an invited partner.
The bar wasn’t open yet (darn). The coffee was.
Grady and I met at The Pfister on what felt like an ordinary early morning. It was kind of humorous to us that people were walking by the entire time we were there. But nobody knew what we were recording.
I’ve wanted to record at The Pfister for years.
I’m glad I got to finally do that with someone who gets venture capitalists from around the country to come to Milwaukee.
Tuesday with Grady and coffee. So far, so good.
Grady invests in the people who invest.
He calls NVNG “the capital for the top of the capital.” NVNG puts money into venture capital firms who then put money into startups.
If you let him, Grady can get pretty deep on this stuff. Before you know it, you’re like, “what?!?”
So, in this interview, I keep him focused.
His view on what NVNG does? You can’t do this kind of work to be nice.
“Venture capital is a global sport,” he told me. A term sheet, which spells out an investment in a startup, for a Milwaukee founder should look the same as one might look for a founder in California, Boston, or New York. Because one day that founder will need a five or ten million dollar check, and the people who write those checks, according to Grady, don’t really live here in Milwaukee.
So he follows the innovation. A lot of his portfolio is in deep tech in places like Texas and across the Midwest. Wisconsin, he hopes, eventually.
What if we got them to come here?
Grady has 431 startups in the portfolio and few, if any, can get the attention of a Wisconsin corporation who might become an early customer or who can at least help validate the startup’s offering.
Ask any founder. It’s simply damn hard to get those kinds of meetings.
So Grady’s response was to start +Venture North, a free event built to help foster those important connections, even if the founders aren’t in the room.
About 250 people attended the first event a few years ago. And, at a glance, likely several hundred this year.
The vibe is interesting. You have a room full of people managing a lot of money. Or they’re managing a lot of very interesting, high growth startups. Or both.
But everyone is there to find ways to work together.
Jump into our conversation.
Grady can only do this a day or two a year. His goal is to make that connection run all year.
He’s definitely not short on ideas.
And he says it would be great if, in ten years, nobody at +Venture North needs a name tag because everyone will know everyone in the room. Love that.
Even though +Venture North is invite-only, I sat down with Grady at The Pfister so you could get in on the conversation.
Listen to our chat below or on Spotify.
Love you, Milwaukee!