Seed Funds Are Finding the Midwest, But We’ve Been Here All Along

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg came to St. Louis recently, visiting with entrepreneurs, local leaders and small business owners at the Cortex Innovation Community, not far from the iSelect office. He was in town to launch a new small business development initiative called Facebook Community Boost which, according to them, is going to help business owners in flyover country finally reach their digital potential. That’s great, and the fact that St. Louis was his first stop on a planned 30-city tour was no accident.

Read More

What iSelect Offers to Startup Entrepreneurs

There are a variety of reasons startups like to work with iSelect.

First of all, we are a very approachable team. We get along well with our startups. We usually develop strong, personal relationships. And we’re helpful, whether or not they eventually become a portfolio company of ours or not, we are invested in the startup ecosystem and we want to see people succeed. Secondly, we’re flexible capital, and that flexibility comes two ways. First of all, we can invest at literally any stage, from seed through a C round. And so there aren’t a whole lot of VCs out there investing at the seed level, and there aren’t a whole lot of VCs out there investing at a C stage with flexibility to be as small as $250,000 or as big as $2 million.

Watch

We’re Challenging the Financial Services Industry to Think About Venture Investing

Venture capital investing remains one of the highest yielding investment classes available today and a large part of that outperformance is based on the illiquidity premium, which is the higher yield that investors can find by investing in products that are not easily traded. Venture, where the typical investment lasts at least five years, is a textbook example of the illiquidity premium in action, and presents upside that is uncorrelated to the ebbs and flows of the larger stock and bond markets.

Read More

Portfolio Company News

  • Agrible named to the Thrive Top 50. Read More
  • Agrible Announces Leadership Changes, Positions for Next Phase of Growth. Read More
  • Agrible to Launch Retailer Services in 2018. Read More
  • Agrible Inc. and K Coe Isom Seek New Outcomes For Sustainable Food and Agriculture. Read More
  • Agrible and K-Coe Isom Announce Partnership. Read More
  • Agrible: Wired In: Brent Trenhaile. Read More
  • Agrible: Aerial Imaging Getting Easier. Read More
  • Agrilyst’s 2017 State of Indoor Farming Report. Read More
  • Benson Hill named to the Thrive Top 50. Read More
  • Benson Hill: St. Louis startup among world’s top A.I. companies. Read More
  • Benson Hill and Neuros Medical: Game Changing Startups 2018. Read More
  • Benson Hill: Enabling Genome Editing to be a Truly Enabling Technology. Read More
  • Benson Hill Biosystems Named to the 2018 AI 100, Highlighting Advancements in Empowering Crop Genomic Innovation to Improve our Food System. Read More
  • Benson Hill: How St. Louis Earned the Title of ‘Disruptor’ in Agtech in 2017. Read More
  • Better Weekdays: Inc Magazine: 4 Keys Towards Making a Successful Pivot. Read More
  • Better Weekdays: Entrepreneur Magazine: 7 Red Flags Warning You to Turn Down That Job Offer. Read More
  • Better Weekdays: Competencies Are the Rosetta Stone for Recruiters and Students. Read More
  • Cofactor Genomics to Present Immune Profiling Results of Sarcoma Study with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Read More
  • Understanding Tumor Microenvironments With Cofactor Genomics. Read More  
  • Cofactor Genomics: How Low Can You Go? Advantages of Low-Input RNA-SEQ Over Single-Cell RNA-SEQ. Read More
  • Cofactor Genomics: RNA: A New Dimension in Molecular Diagnostics. Read More
  • Compassus COO Corina Tracy and Epharmix CEO Blake Marggraff Discuss the Importance of End-of-Life Conversations with Business of Healthcare. Read More
  • Top Accelerator Dreamit Health Selects Epharmix to Join Its Latest Cohort. Read More
  • Epharmix: Pulse@MassChallenge Launches Second Class of 32 Healthcare Startups. Read More
  • Hatchbuck: 3 Ways Artificial Intelligence Can Boost CRM Initiatives. Read More
  • Holganix: 5 Types of Soil Microbes to Nurture Plant and Soil Health. Read More
  • Holganix: 5 Facts About the Organic Fertilizer Market. Read More
  • Holganix: 3 Ways Roots Enhance Turf Health. Read More
  • Integer Holdings Corp Secures Long-Term Supply Agreement with Neuros Medical. Read More
  • Popbookings: 3 Examples of Automation That Every Event Staffing Agency Needs. Read More
  • Proteosense: Romaine lettuce is likely behind a spate of illnesses—but the FDA won’t say so yet. Read More
  • StreamLink Software: New Report Presents Opportunity to Fix Federal Grant Reporting. Read More

Upcoming Events

Webinar – January 25, 3pm CT – Holganix: Optimizing Soils With Plant Probiotics to Grow Healthier, More Sustainable Plants. Register

iSelect Fund was developed by active venture investors for advisors and their investors.

We welcome the opportunity to update you on our portfolio companies and to consider the iSelect Fund for your investment portfolio.

Contact us to schedule a meeting with an iSelect Fund representative at (800) 963-5099 or curious@iselectfund.com.