When we talked to Tadd Tobkin of Arthur Ventures for the story published Monday about the Fargo, N.D.-based venture capital firm, Tobkin was so generous with his insights that we couldn’t squeeze everything into one post.
We compiled our top 3 Q&A excerpts from our interview with Tobkin that didn’t make our last article:
SPN: What types of investments interest Arthur Ventures?
TT: I think any venture capitalist has their own hypothesis about where they think the value will be created in the coming years, call it 10 or 20 years. The answer is probably a little different for everyone. Somebody would maybe give you an industry, somebody would maybe give you a geography, or a combination of several things. But for me, it’s really the intersection of software, IT, and the ubiquity of processors and their interconnectedness, especially where it delivers value in the front office.
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SPN: Can you tell us more about Arthur Ventures’ philosophy that investments are “partners?”
TT: We seriously do look at these companies as partners and I think if you were to go out and ask the founders or the entrepreneurs behind them, they would see us more as a partner rather than a venture capitalist too.
We look at ourselves as venture capitalists second and operators first. We like to roll up our sleeves and help with the strategy to help think through day-to-day business issues whether they’re organizational in nature, financial, or sales and marketing. I think it’s also good from the business’ standpoint to have somebody that they can rely on for something other than just money.
SPN: What will it take for successful entrepreneurs to reinvest in local startups?
TT: I think it’s courage on a lot of fronts. It’s courage for the high-net worth individual to become a part of it. Don’t always send your money to a coast, put a piece of it back home locally and give entrepreneurs in their region the chance to do what they did.
It’s not just about the money, it’s also about their knowledge because a lot of these guys who have done well have networks, they’ve made mistakes that they can save other entrepreneurs from, they can give good strategic advice, they can even guide us as venture capitalists.