MSIV is selective, but if a startup demonstrates a viable product, client base and some revenue, the venture firm could provide a golden egg.
Kushel cofounded MSIV with Elizabeth Murphy, its vice president of community. The firm helps startups in Marin and Sonoma counties grow in two ways: networking and financing. The company’s annual NEXT conferences are an example of the former—giving early-stage businesses a chance to take the spotlight in front of the business community. The April 2023 meeting was the second such event, held at the Sonoma State University campus in Rohnert Park. The third conference took place in Novato in May 2024. Participants had five minutes to describe their companies using just five slides. “My usual presentation has 15 slides. I spent hours and hours paring it down,” says Harburg. The Sausalito resident and Harvard graduate has designed technology for Disney theme parks and also worked for Meta (Facebook), among other roles. In addition to the NEXT events, Murphy and Kushel have assembled a group of 27 former CEOs who are part of an executive advisory and mentoring network. The other component of MSIV’s approach is financing. Marin Sonoma Impact Ventures has funded 10 North Bay companies so far: Channel99, Finalis, Fire Aside, Jump Aero, NewRetirement, Novi, Operant Networks, PairUp, Sageful AI and Union Credit. When choosing which startups to invest in, MSVI looks for companies that are “post-product and post-revenue. They have a product, they have customers and they are at least to some extent making money,” Kushel says.
“It’s team, market and traction,” Kushel adds. Companies with all three—a good team, an appropriate market and early successes such as sales—fill the bill, he says. From a market standpoint, MSIV is a venture capital fund, so it must invest in companies building a large market, he says. “We want to create companies that are valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars.” Over the course of the 34 months Marin Sonoma Impact Ventures has been deploying capital, over 220 local companies were considered and only 10 were chosen, the cofounder says. “We are very selective,” says Kushel. To pool the money for investments, MSIV created a locally raised fund, Fund One. MSIV Fund One is a $6.6 million vehicle backed by 62 individuals, 92% of whom live in Marin and Sonoma counties. “It was ‘pass the hat and community fundraise,’” Kushel says. “Fund One is the first ever regional bank for capital funds in the history of Sonoma and Marin counties. “I’m the first person with a fiduciary obligation to spend this money in Marin and Sonoma,” he adds. Though there have been waves of layoffs in the tech sector over the past couple of years with a ripple effect on the overall economy, Kushel says, “Despite the economic headwinds, our companies are doing well and building their customer bases. Our portfolio overall has not been negatively impacted.” As to how the fund is doing, “The goal of our fund is to have
34 NorthBaybiz
September 2024
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