Could you share more about your experience as an investor outside a typical tech hub?

Paige Finn DohertyFounding Partner, Behind Genius · Founding Partner at Behind Genius Ventures

How is Foundry Partner Jaclyn Hester's experience as an investor outside a typical tech hub?

22 Nov 2022 · 1 min

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Jaclyn Hester describes how successful regional investors become core nodes in their local ecosystems. She points to Natty, who co-founded Matchstick after managing Techstars Boulder, as an example of someone leveraging deep networks to focus on a manageable slice of the market.

Questions this video answers

I think the best regional investors act as a core node in their network. For example, Natty at Matchstick—formerly the MD of Techstars Boulder—spun out a fund with his partner Ryan that covers two regions and leverages the Techstars network. This size lets them focus effectively. Whenever someone asks about the Boulder ecosystem, I connect them with Natty because he knows everyone and sits at the center of that network.

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So I would love if you could share a bit more about your experience as an investor outside of a typical tech hub, especially since you all have been doing it for a while.
Yeah. So I think that there's a couple of pieces to it. I think the best sort of regional folks that are outside of places, they are, they are a core node in their network. So I'll name Natty at Matchstick. Which is one of our partner funds. Natty was the managing director of the Techstars Boulder program and then spun out to start this fund with his partner Ryan, and they cover kind of 2 regions. So thing one, like covering 2 regions plus their Techstars network, it's big enough that they can focus on that. Yeah. And then I think thing 2 is like anybody, you know, anybody that asks me like, hey, what's going on in the Boulder startup ecosystem, I just connect them with Natty because he knows everybody and he's very much at the center of that.