VentureUs is a new group formed by three Seattle-area angel investors, Jenn Wrenn Henry, Jonathan Kagle, and Keith Laepple. They were previously part of SeaChange, a Seattle-based investment group, and decided to launch VentureUs to continue making pre-seed and seed investments in startups across the Pacific Northwest. The group aims to streamline the investing process by establishing an investment board that makes final investment decisions, providing more consistency for both members and founders who pitch to the board. Laepple, a former Microsoft executive, believes that this approach will provide more value to founders.
VentureUs plans to make between 6-to-10 investments per year in startups across various industries, investing between $100,000 to $400,000 for each check. The group has already backed three companies: Nowadays, an event-planning startup, Roby, a building energy management startup, and Ambassador, a customer referral startup. With more than 40 investors in the group, members can make additional “sidecar” investments to boost the check size for founders and provide opportunities for investors to put extra money into deals they like. The goal of VentureUs is to attract more people to angel investing, especially in the Seattle startup ecosystem, which has been criticized for a lack of angel investors.
The lack of angel investors in the Seattle startup ecosystem is a longstanding issue, with Washington state accounting for only 2.7% of all pre-seed deals in the U.S. over the past year. This pales in comparison to states like California, which accounts for 38% of pre-seed deals. Despite the wealth of tech executives in the Seattle area, there is a need to grow new investors and support startups in the region. Efforts such as the Seattle Angel Conference, Alliance of Angels, and other initiatives are working to generate angel activity and educate first-time startup investors. VentureUs, led by passionate individuals like Wrenn Henry, is part of this movement to support and value underrepresented companies in the Pacific Northwest.
Susan Preston, a former managing partner at SeaChange and a longtime Seattle-area investor, is an advisor to VentureUs, adding valuable expertise to the group. Former SeaChange leaders William Finney and Peter Mueller now run Breakwater Ventures, another Seattle-based investment firm. VentureUs, with its collaborative approach and focus on consistency in investment decisions, aims to provide more support to founders in the region and help grow the angel investing community. Kagle, a former Microsoft employee, believes in the potential of great companies in the area and the importance of supporting and valuing them through initiatives like VentureUs.
