Yesterday, my partner Kenny Estes and I announced a first close for the fund we have been working on. Our fund name is West Loop Ventures.
We think the entire backbone of financial services is going to be revolutionized in the next five to ten years. We also think that Chicago entrepreneurs are going to play a very large part in developing the technology.
Both Kenny and I had a front row seat to the prior revolution that happened between 1995-2001. I was on the CME Board of Directors for part of that time. I was a part of the Strategic Planning Committee lead by Jimmy Oliff that charted the course for the drastic change in capital markets. CME lead that change.
The winners in the last fin tech revolution were in Chicago.
Because of CME, an entire new industry of high frequency trading firms cropped up and headquartered in Chicago. Kenny was the 15th employee of Getco, one of the first firms. He also went to London and was integral in setting up their European operations.
The HFT firms hired the best engineers in the world. In 2001, during the nuclear winter in the tech industry, Chicago firms kept hiring. In 2008, during the financial crisis when everyone stopped, they kept hiring. As a result there is a massive pool of talent in Chicago that understands the ins and outs of B2B Fin Tech.
Many of them want to start their own companies. However, when they go to the coasts for funding, they run into many of the same roadblocks Midwestern entrepreneurs run into.
WLV intends on leading seed stage deals. Once we achieve or max fund size, our check sizes will be $500,000. When companies make it to Series A, we will write another check. But, we are not going to be writing any Series B checks.
We have been actively working with potential partners from all over the country that want to step in and pick up the baton for later rounds.
B2B Fin Tech is a core strength of Chicago. In 1848, the warehouse receipt was created and the CBOT started trading. The entire city was built on the back of business to business finance.
It turns out, other ecosystems are good at payments, or B2C businesses. But Chicago entrepreneurs are really good at all the plumbing that makes the world financial system go.
Our goal is to raise a $30M first fund. But, our real goal is to raise successively larger funds and work with entrepreneurs that want to revolutionize the financial industry. We think they will want to do it here.
If you are an entrepreneur looking to disrupt the B2B Fin Tech industry. We want to meet you. Even if we don't wind up writing a check, we will try to help.
If you are an investor interested in participating in the next revolution, we'd love to talk to you about our vision and where we see the world going.
