Seed Capital: Mark Solon, Co-Founder And Managing Partner, Highway 12 Ventures — Boise, Idaho (Part 6)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: Do you have a preference for capital-efficient companies?

Mark: For the most part. We’re in a couple of companies that haven’t been the most capital-efficient businesses, but they’re still great outcomes. We’re not a big enough fund to play in companies that raise $50 million or $100 million. We try and find companies that can get to a degree of profitability and scale on less than $10 million.

Irina: How long on average you stay invested in a company before it exits?

Mark: It’s hard to say. Anywhere from a year to eight years. One of our portfolio companies just signed a letter of intent to be acquired. It was a 2003 investment for us. It’s going to be a company that sells for well over $100 million. That’s a seven- or eight-year-hold for us.

Irina: What is your biggest success to date?

Mark: I think all the companies we’ve exited from have been, in our eyes, very successful. Some have been bigger financial returns than others. Any time we’re an investor in a company where the entrepreneurs make money and our investors make money, we feel that it was a very big success. It’s a hard business.

Irina: What are your relationships with the startup accelerator TechStars?

Mark: I’m a mentor at the Boulder TechStars program. As soon as the companies arrive [for their three-month acceleration program] in the first week, I start spending a lot of time in Boulder working with a couple of the companies and getting to know all of the companies quite well. We’re spending as much time as we can there and we have invested in a number of TechStars’ companies.

Irina: Thank you, Mark. Fantastic insights.

Seed Capital: Mark Solon, Co-Founder And Managing Partner, Highway 12 Ventures — Boise, Idaho (Part 5)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Mark: It probably takes getting to $20 million or $30 million in sales before a larger technology company would be interested in acquiring a company. You’re going to have to get at least part of the way there. It’s hard to draw a line in the sand. At a minimum, if a company doesn’t have an opportunity to get to $100 million in sales, then it’s probably not the right opportunity for us. >>>

Seed Capital: Mark Solon, Co-Founder And Managing Partner, Highway 12 Ventures — Boise, Idaho (Part 4)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Mark: It’s never too early for an entrepreneur to come and spend time with us. We have an open door. That’s what we love to do. We’re in this business because we love working with any type of entrepreneur.

As long as you’re attempting to build a business that’s going after a sizable market with a unique approach, we want to get to know you, if you’re in this region. >>>

Seed Capital: Mark Solon, Co-Founder And Managing Partner, Highway 12 Ventures — Boise, Idaho (Part 3)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Mark: A fair deal has usually been reached when both sides leave the table equally dissatisfied. If one side feels like it leaves that table happy … it’s like a seesaw. Everybody’s got to be equally dissatisfied. If one team is more dissatisfied than the other, then you probably have not struck a fair deal. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Interview With Ebony Johnson, Entrepreneurial Programs Champion, TechTown — Detroit, Michigan (Part 4)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Praveen Karoshi

Irina: How is the Bizdom U program is different from what you offer?

Ebony: They are not an incubator. They have a four-month accelerator program. They accept a small number of folks, and you have to have a full-time commitment. You couldn’t have a job. It is 9 to 5, Monday–Friday commitment. It is a different offering than what we do. We don’t have a 9 to 5 intensive, four-month program. >>>

Seed Capital: Mark Solon, Co-Founder And Managing Partner, Highway 12 Ventures — Boise, Idaho (Part 2)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: What factors receive the most weight when debating whether to invest?

Mark: It’s a combination of a large market opportunity and a great team. We’re looking for three things: a large market opportunity; a unique and compelling solution to that market opportunity; and a small team of entrepreneurs that has consistently demonstrated extraordinary things in their pasts. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Interview With Ebony Johnson, Entrepreneurial Programs Champion, TechTown — Detroit, Michigan (Part 3)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Praveen Karoshi

Irina: Do you know how entrepreneurs get evaluated for these loans?

Ebony: The loans are based on business worthiness, where they are in their stages of development, who is in place on their team, and the feasibility of their idea, what is their plan, what is their ability to pay the money back, that sort of thing.
>>>

Seed Capital: Mark Solon, Co-Founder And Managing Partner, Highway 12 Ventures — Boise, Idaho (Part 1)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

I am talking to Mark Solon, co-founder and managing partner of Highway 12 Ventures, which is a $75 million venture fund in Boise, Idaho. Highway 12 invests in high-growth start-up companies in the Intermountain West. >>>