In conjunction with our Q1 Venture Financing Report, Rick Ginsberg sat down with Matt Sacks of Lightbank to get his take on the state of venture capital investing.
Key insights from Matt Sacks
On the future of the Midwest’s innovation ecosystem: “Over the past decade, the size of the venture capital industry has expanded at a remarkable pace. … We believe there is a tremendous opportunity to be a capital provider to the early-stage innovation ecosystem in the Midwest and help this market develop.”
On disruptive technology trends in the Midwest: “[W]e find that the Midwest ecosystem generates a significant number of exciting startups attempting to disrupt categories like steel manufacturing and commodities trading.”
On the growth of Chicago’s VC market: “To truly achieve scale, a startup ecosystem needs to nurture an appetite for risk and acceptance of failure, have great research institutions and strong engineering talent pools, have a series of successful prior-generation companies that created significant value for those involved, and importantly, have enough early-stage capital providers willing to embrace risk.”