Scott Kitun knows firsthand that Chicago needs more investors who are willing to take risks, but he's finding that if you want something done right sometimes you have to do it yourself.
Kitun, along with his fellow founders of Chicago-based music startup Songfinch — including John Williamson, Rob Lindquist and Josh Kaplan — have decided to launch Off Center Ventures, a new venture fund that will write checks to founders focused on disruption and working at the intersection of tech and entertainment.
Backed by Valor Siren Ventures, a venture fund that led Songfinch's $17 million Series A that closed last year, Off Center Ventures has around $1 million to work with in 2023 that Kitun anticipates will be deployed across 15 or so investments ranging from $30,000 to $50,000 per check, with some variation.
"I don't think that we will be raising from [limited partners] for the next year or so. It’s just us as founders putting some of our money in play," he said.
Kitun knows how hard it can be for startup founders to raise their first capital and wants to make it a little easier for them by taking a seat at the other end of the table and writing some checks himself.
"This isn’t a recent thing, but I'm so tired of how many companies and founders that I've met over the years in Chicago who, for whatever reason, cannot raise the first $500,000 or first million if they need to," he told Chicago Inno. "The way I look at it is we have enough know-how and have relationships with enough investors in the later stage that if I can contribute in any way to give a founder the opportunity to get to that later stage where we can be helpful, I owe it to them because that’s what was done for us."
As the name suggests, part of Off Center's mission will be to find the next standouts in Chicago's tech space. The firm made its first investment of about $25,000 before the end of 2022 in Chicago foodtech startup Entrée.
"If you look at what most founders look like, and sound like, and you look at what most venture investors look like and sound like, it’s like a carbon [copy]," Kitun said. "For us, I don’t want to be a cookie cutter. I want to be a little bit off center and I want the founders to stand out."
