In a world ravaged by a mortgage crisis and a lack of local capital, Eric Rosenfeld and Bob Ward recognized an opportunity…. And thus began the origin story of the Oregon Venture Fund.
In 2006, just $153M of VC was invested in Oregon startups, and nearly all of that came from out-of-state funds. You could see the venture capital flying overhead on its way from Silicon Valley to Seattle. We knew entrepreneurs and investors often take great pride in the communities in which they work and live. What if we could facilitate investing local and do so in a rigorous, methodical, and professional way? Our 2007 fund was one of the first in the country to introduce and champion the concept of place-based investing, which has now become a bona fide large-scale movement…
Like many of the entrepreneurs we back, we ignored the conventional wisdom and advice and followed our conviction that we were onto a more powerful model, a model with the potential for greater impact and returns. We followed the lean startup playbook and bootstrapped. OVF’s 2007 annual fund was just $900K, but it generated a 6.1X net cash-on-cash return.
Read the beginnings of the Oregon Angel Fund which would go on to become Oregon Venture Fund.
