I'm an early-stage ($500K-$5M) investor and Partner at Lightbank, a Chicago-based venture capital firm (intelligent life does exist beyond SF). I like investing in bold and off-color ideas and founders. The overlooked and underappreciated rough-cut gems. Generally, things other VCs hate or don't have the patience to try to understand. Usually beyond the Bay Area. My favorite music genre is early 2000s rap and hip-hop, and once upon a time (~35 lbs ago), I played college football.

a few of my favorite stories of entrepreneurship and/or the disposition it requires (real and fictitious)...

Lead, co-lead or participate (~5% ownership floor) in early-stage software (incl. AI), tech-enabled services, and marketplace businesses. I'm a generalist but gravitate towards the weird / unpopular things that are typically being built beyond Silicon Valley.

What I look for: founders with at least one rough edge and an unwavering obsession with solving a very specific problem, and that possess some clear top 1% mastery of either, industry/domain, business model, product/technology, or sales.

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