A venture capital firm based in Cincinnati is heading up the Ohio River to Pittsburgh as part of its plans to find and make investment deals in local startup companies that are based here.
These efforts formally begin following a sold out event hosted by Pittsburgh-based seed stage investment firm Innovation Works Inc., which has invited directors from CincyTech to speak in front of about 125 Pittsburgh-area startup founders during a Jan. 24 discussion at the Robotics Factory in Lawrenceville.
"As seed-stage investors, we are always looking to partner with entrepreneurs to build world-class technologies," Sarah Douglas, a director at CincyTech and one of the event speakers, said in an email statement. "Pittsburgh has a wealth of innovation and we are excited to tap into the ecosystem."
Douglas will be joined by Christin Godale, another director at CincyTech.
Derrick Maultsby Jr., a senior associate based out of the Pittsburgh offices of the Cincinnati-headquartered Frost Brown Todd law firm, is set to moderate the discussion. It comes following months of conversations that started last July while Maultsby was at Cincinnati's Black Tech Week event, where he said stakeholders at CincyTech have been looking to make inroads into Pittsburgh's startup scene.
Following progress on those talks and amid a continued need for many Pittsburgh startups to find and secure capital beyond the limits of the Steel City, now's the time to act, Maultsby said of the forthcoming event, which doesn't contain an admission price.
"What a cool opportunity to roll out the red carpet for an early-stage investor that has an interest in what's going on in Pittsburgh, introducing them to companies and introducing them to the ecosystem in a really meaningful way, and, more than anything, how can we use this as a roadmap for what's to come," he said, before noting a desire to partner with Innovation Works to help facilitate these efforts. "It just kind of developed from there."
For IW, the largest seed-stage investor for startups in Pittsburgh by total dollars deployed, the welcoming of CincyTech to the region isn't one that's viewed as competitive. If anything, it's being celebrated as complimentary to IW's offerings and that of the broader tech funding ecosystem.
"We're proud of the work that our companies are doing, and we want to help tell those stories so that other investors are aware of what's happening in this region, and that this is not a flyover moment; this is the fly-to-spot to be in this country," Jane Joseph, director of communications and community development at IW, said. "We're excited to start these conversations and just to have some friendly introductions and just see where those go in the next couple of years."
Joseph said she's excited to be working with Maultsby and others to further identify other investment firms to bring into the city in the coming months.
"I can tell you from the very quickly sold-out RSVPs that this is definitely something that [founders] want to keep seeing," she added.
As for his ideal message to be learned from this event, Maultsby hopes the founders in attendance realize that "the world is bigger than Pittsburgh" and that support throughout the Midwest is strong for startups that are growing within it.
"There are investors across the Midwest who want to be here, and who want to connect with you, and they want to support you, and they want to see the Midwest as a whole be successful and grow," Maultsby said. "I think at times in Pittsburgh we often can be insular, and so really just a broad takeaway is: Let's kick the walls down, let's invite people in and let's create these connections across the Midwest that are ultimately going to make all of our cities stronger."
