Marigrace Ragsdale
Company: Render Capital
Title: Senior Associate
Age: 25
Hometown: St. Louis
Resides (city or neighborhood): St. Matthews
Education history: University of Louisville (finance, entrepreneurship, and management)
Hobbies: Sports and fitness, travel, restaurant hopping
Instagram handle: mragsdale7
Favorite tech gadget: Apple watch
How did you get into the career you have today? I’m just about three years into my professional career. In college, I studied finance and was drawn to the investments path. Right after school, I started working in the asset management side of the investment world, but really wanted to pivot into venture capital and entrepreneurship. I love my current role because it’s all about working with companies at the earliest and grittiest stages of development. One of my mentors helped me to identify that I enjoy "the art" much more than "the science" of investing. Startup investing allows you to operate in "the art" much more because you're vetting people and potential more often than historical data and/or proven solutions. Also, I love that I'm always learning about new ideas and new industries.
What’s one thing Louisville can do to improve its tech and/or startup ecosystem? Louisville needs to have a more robust and consistent angel investor community.
I think a more organized angel community would increase accessibility, so that founders don’t have to navigate their way into behind-the-scenes networks to meet potential investors. Also important is ensuring that this pool of investors is diverse and interested in investing across all industries. We don’t want to be a town that only invests in our comfort zone!
Who has been one of your top mentors? Why? One of my top mentors has to be TJ Abood, chief investment officer at Access Ventures. In the beginning days of Render Capital, TJ was my manager and taught me so much each day. He has an amazing perspective on both the macro industry as well as on individual deals, but above all else, is a great person and leader. Another impactful mentor has been Victoria Fram, who is the managing director of Impact Investments at Sobrato Capital and has helped share wisdom about being a female leader in the venture capital and impact investment space.
What’s your best piece of advice for companies and individuals looking to be more innovative and disruptive in their fields? I think that reception to new ideas and flexibility to test them are the most important values that a company can have if it wants to be innovative. Whether it is listening to your customers or your own employees, the people who are closest to the product or service probably have tons of ideas on how to make improvements. It’s really easy to get comfortable with processes that are already in place, but I think if companies keep an open dialogue with all their stakeholders and continue to adjust based on their findings, then they will be inherently innovative.
What accomplishment are you most proud of? My biggest career accomplishment has probably been launching the annual Render Competition for our fund. The initiative is the result of a lot of hard work, research, partner development, and intentional program structuring. By 2024, the initiative will invest upwards of $4 million into startups from here and all over the country that are committed to growing within and beyond Greater Louisville. I'm especially proud of how fast and effectively our whole team has been able to come together to implement this big project and how quickly we've been able to recognize its impact.
What innovative company (other than your own) do you admire and why? There are several that come to mind, but one that actually impacts me on a daily basis is Peloton. It’s pretty much undeniable that they’ve disrupted the fitness industry. Over the last several years, they’ve continued to make product improvements to enhance the experience as well as build up their community in an inclusive way (as much as possible with the price point, of course). Its popularity has bred several competitors and now, there are tons of options for convenient, at-home programming, proving the concept is here to stay.
Regionally, it’s really cool to see the innovation in agriculture taking place at App Harvest.
