WELCOME!

We're glad you're here! Our goal is to provide periodic updates on the impact of Oregon Venture Fund (OVF) portfolio companies and venture capital in our region.

Take a look around and let us know what you think. Thanks for being here.

FUND + TEAM NEWS 

OVF and Investing in Women

Nationally, women-founded companies represent about 19% of all venture financings, according to the most recent data from Pitchbook.

• Of the 73 companies we’ve backed to date, 22 [30%] were founded or are led by a woman. We're doing a bit better than the average but our goal is to get to closer to 50%.

We believe change must start from within. That's why:

• 6 of our 9 fund management team members are women.
• 83 [46%] of our 180 venture partners – exited entrepreneurs and business/tech leaders who contribute to the work of the fund – are women.
• The majority of our recent board placements are women.

With your help, we know we can reach our important goal.

Let's chat. Investors email Lynn. Entrepreneurs email Jon.

Pictured from top: Allie Magyar [Hubb, now Notified], OVF Venture Partners, Nicole Schmidt [Source].

OVF's 15th Fund NOW OPEN for Accredited Investors!

We're proud to be Oregon's largest and most active venture fund. We invest in Oregon and SW Wash. companies, regardless of stage or sector, to grow great companies and build wealth locally. Our collaborative model of partnering our talented venture partners, has proven successful. With nearly $150M in AUM, and a 15-year track record of investing with superior returns, we're excited to be fundamental to our growing economic region.

To learn more, contact Melissa or Eric

How Investors Spot the Next Cult Brand

Ever wonder how to spot the next cult brand thing? We have some ideas (and a few successes to back up those ideas). Check out this article by our esteemed venture partners, Carol Kruse and Martin McClanan along with OVF founder, Eric Rosenfeld. They share their experience and expertise - and some secrets - of the indicators of potential success.

This trio shares why cult brands matter, what metrics to review, what evidence investors search for, and examples of brands that have reached cult brand status. Is your favorite thing listed?

Pictured: Carol Kruse and Martin McClanan - Carol is a professional board member and former marketing executive at ESPN and Coca-Cola. She has led three venture-backed startups. Martin is a former director at Prophet Brand Strategy and former CEO of GiftTree, Norm Thompson, and RedEnvelope.

PORTFOLIO NEWS

Making a Difference & Saving us from Boredom

Brandlive's CEO, Sam Kolbert-Hyle, joined Greg Kihlström on The Agile Brand podcast, where they discussed the Brandlive formula to make webinars more like TV and embracing storytelling to make it so good people won't tune out.

You also might want to check out how Brandlive helped Nike deliver on their goals to inspire change in the world of sports. Brandlive worked with Nike to engage audiences over two days, with 26 speakers and nearly 4000 registrants from all over the Globe!

Breaking Records with thatDot

If you think typing 70 words per minute is fast, wait until you try Quine from thatDot.

Quine recently processed 1 million simultaneous events per second, a record in the world of data processing. Per second! They help customers make sense of and act on all that data being captured.

thatDot is led by Ryan Wright [pictured] and supported by OVF venture partners Scott Grout and Nick Wade.

The FDA says Yes!

Have you heard about the incredible work being done at Cascade Prodrug? They are developing a novel therapy that uniquely takes advantage of tumor microenvironments.

Recently, the FDA provided a valuable orphan drug designation (ODD) for their molecule - CPD 100Li - for treating pancreatic cancer. The FDA is clearly supporting the direction and focus of the company, as it completes preclinical development and commercial partnering initiatives. Congrats to founders Al Cochrane, Augie Sick, the team and the many who will benefit. Learn more about Cascade Prodrug's impactful story here.

JOBS

Looking for a new gig? Know someone who is? Below are just a few open positions at a few of our portfolio companies. Check them out. Pass them along. Thanks!

VP of Sales - TrovaTrip

Director of Sales - Qualtik

Director, Customer Success - Brandlive

Lead Software Engineer - Megh Computing

Check out the OVF job board for the complete, up-to-date list of all 90+ openings.

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 info@oregonventurefund.com

Since its founding, OVF and its investors have invested $169M in 73 companies that have created over 4,900 jobs. 30% of our portfolio companies are founded or led by a woman and 21% by an entrepreneur of color.

OVF is made possible by the generosity of our corporate partners

Disclosure: This newsletter is intended to provide general information regarding OVFs investments and impact and not for the purpose of soliciting investors for any OVF Fund. Under no circumstances should the information provided be considered an offer to sell, or a solicitation to buy, any security. Such offer or solicitation may only be made to accredited investors and qualified purchasers pursuant to the current offering documents of the relevant OVF Fund. The information provided may not be reproduced or disseminated to any third parties without the written consent of OVF. The past performance of previous OVF Funds and portfolio companies is not necessarily indicative of future results. Investors in OVF Funds may lose investment capital. There can be no assurance that any future OVF Funds or portfolio companies will achieve comparable results.