Arizona Tech Investors, one of the state’s most prominent angel investing groups, is shaking up its leadership team, starting from the top. Jim Goulka, ATI’s chairman and managing director since 2010, will step down at the end of this year.
“Every organization needs to renew itself. We're now at a nice place where we are big enough, we are entering a new sort of structure,” Goulka said. “While I've run big, much bigger, organizations, I think it's time for a new person to be in charge.”
ATI has already formed a search committee for its new director and it is looking at both internal and external candidates to lead the group, which is organized as a 501c(6) nonprofit. Goulka will continue to participate as a member of ATI, but he will leave the board and his director role on Dec. 31.
In preparation for the change, ATI has also taken Goulka’s responsibilities and divided them up among a new leadership team. These ATI members have been named new vice chairs in the group, each tasked with a particular function:
- Robert De Lean, candidate identification and evaluation
- Erik Probsfield, due diligence
- Michelle Tinsley, membership
- Joe Cusack, sponsorship
- Ram Sankaran, technology
Setting a new vision for ATI
These leadership changes are reflective of a new vision ATI is setting for its future; The group is aiming to double its membership from about 100 people to more than 200 in the near future.
Goulka previously performed all these leadership functions as a full time job, but now, with his resignation nearing, the group is reorganizing to support more members and invest in more businesses.
“If you think about 200 members as opposed to 100, that means not only are you going to have more people who are capable check writers, which means more dumping out larger investments per company, but you have double the brainpower,” Goulka said. “We think, in every way, we're better off if we're a bigger group.”
The pandemic has created tailwinds for ATI, allowing it to gather easily through video calls to hear more pitches than ever. Goulka said the group is reviewing about 125 pitches each month, up from about 25 when he took over leadership of the group in 2010. Of that 125, most are rejected and a smaller portion are approved to pitch to the group for investment.
ATI has invested in 94 companies, 55 of which are still in its portfolio, according to Goulka. Most of these investments have been made in Valley companies, including past investments in Yellowbird, Botco, Qwick, Better Agency, CampusLogic and WebPT.
Goulka has made increasing the diversity of ATI part of his mission as director. He said that they have made progress (ATI has four Black members now, up from zero last year) but there is still work to do. The diversity of backgrounds, he said, helps the group come to better collective investment decisions.
