On this episode, Hall is joined by Rodolfo Bellesi of Ikove Capital, a venture development company founded to pursue early-stage investments with an emphasis on technology commercialization in the Midwest. An engineer, Rodolfo actually started his career with real estate development out of Boston. He later returned to his alma mater, Ohio State, where he began investing in university technology.

Rodolfo shares his advice to people just starting to invest in startups. He stresses the importance of the team, and of ensuring each component of the team is focusing on their specialty. You’ll also learn Ikove’s venture development studio and how it works.

Rodolfo also talks about the venture capital industry, and how it has moved to a later stage in the process. In addition, he discusses the challenges of building an ‘ecosystem’ of companies within the venture studio model, and provides some examples of companies that fit particularly well with this model.

On this episode, Hall is joined by Flavio Lobato of Ikove Capital, a venture development company founded to pursue early-stage investments with an emphasis on technology commercialization in the Midwest. Hailing from Brazil, Flavio started his career in investment banking after graduating business school. He then went to work with Goldman Sachs in the 90’s and then began to focus on alternative investments.

Flavio shares his advice to people just starting to invest in startups. He stresses how crucial due diligence is for the success of having a positive return profile. You’ll also learn his unique perspective on how the industry is evolving. In particular, Flavio points out the disproportionate amount of investing being focused on a few companies., and what this means in terms of early-stage strategy.

Flavio also talks about their venture development methodology, and why they’ve focused on the Midwest region. Finally, Flavio discusses some of the challenges in venture development, as well as a few of the opportunities or sectors he feels are worth exploring.