DC investor touts power of networking

A prominent venture capital firm in D.C. whose portfolio includes Hyperloop and Urban Stems has proven the key to success is leveraging its network.

Dan Mindus, co-founder and managing partner of NextGen Venture Partners, said his firm has a network of 660 entrepreneurs and executives “busy with their day jobs but spend a little bit of time working together to find interesting startups to invest in.”

“We’ve found a unique way not only to bring a network together, but to leverage that network in a way that makes us better investors,” he told What’s Working in Washington.

NextGen is helping not just by providing money to a company in need of investment fund, but by deploying NextGen’s network on behalf of that company, Mindus said. “If you are trying to generate warm leads — especially from a business-to-business startup — the 660 people in our network can be helpful to you.”

“We’re looking for technology companies, or what we call ‘technology-enabled services’ that have some degree of traction: [they have] sales, or at least there’s strong evidence of interest,” he said.

Instead of companies growing at a slow but steady rate, NextGen is “looking for the kinds of companies that grow 20 percent a month,” said Mindus. His team is focused on companies they believe will become the top of their market.

Mindus said NextGen was founded in D.C. because the area has “an incredible group of entrepreneurs and innovators and executives right here in the nation’s capital.”

“There have been some fantastic startups born here, there have been some fantastic entrepreneurs that have taken their company from zero to IPO (initial public offering). They have wisdom to share, they have cash to invest in the next generation of startups,” said Mindus.

Mindus has advice for people who would like to be venture capitalists, too. “They like you for your money, not necessarily for you,” he said, stressing that one should stay humble. “It’s easy to think of yourself as the pickers of winners and losers,” said Mindus. “But we’re wrong more often than we’re right.”

The main draw for being a venture capitalist, then, is “meeting with entrepreneurs who are… some of the best people in the world. They are creative, they are passionate. Innovation is at their core,” Mindus said.

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