Eric Duboe has decided it's time to go back to investing.
Born and raised in Chicago, Duboe was first exposed to Chicago's startup scene as an intern at William Blair working in investment banking. Now over a decade later, he's joined Chicago Ventures' investing team as its newest partner.
A former vice president at Pritzker Group Venture Capital from 2016 to 2020 and global head of corporate development at Relativity since 2020, Duboe has worked both as an investor and as an operator. He said a lot of his value at Chicago Ventures will come from not only being a source of capital but being a "support system" to help seed-stage companies mature into Series A and beyond.
Duboe was at Relativity when the legal software provider brought in Silver Lake as a strategic investor and grew to become a global market leader in e-discovery software.
He said watching Relativity grow to become the company that it is today and getting that experience he "always wanted" on the operational side will provide him a fresh perspective when evaluating companies.
While the venture market has taken a hit since the highs of 2021, Duboe expects Chicago Ventures to be active moving forward as valuations start to normalize and create new opportunities for the firm to get in early at the seed-stage level, which is where his work will focus within enterprise software.
Duboe spoke to Chicago Inno about how a "passion in investing" ultimately led him to Chicago Ventures. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What drew you back to investing?
I love not only the investing side, but also the operating lens of supporting the entrepreneur and working hand-in-hand with our companies and really trying to be there and and support the next great generation of companies.
What did your time at Relativity teach you about investing?
In helping lead our M&A, our investing activity and our partnership activity, I gained an appreciation for what it takes to operate cross-functionally and what it takes to operate a company of that scale. When you're in that cross-functional role, and play a role in helping drive the strategy, you get a deep appreciation for all the different levers inside of a business and gain some empathy of working with folks across each level of an organization. No day is the same in that world.
What's next in enterprise software in Chicago?
You're seeing various segments heat up right now. I saw firsthand at Relativity how hot legal tech is becoming with the wave of generative AI. Chicago historically has been strong in supply chain, logistics and manufacturing as well.
