Brett Luing left an impression when he interned with St. Louis startup investor Capital Innovators in the summer of 2020. When Capital Innovators last year had an opening for its program director, it turned to Luing.
Since joining Capital Innovators, Luing has been instrumental in the application and investment process for its accelerator programs, including its NGA Accelerator, which launched last year. He has placed a focus on seeking to introduce companies from across the globe to St. Louis, with four international companies being a part of Capital Innovators' last two cohorts.
The 24-year-old Luing, who is originally from New Jersey, says his goal is to “attract younger companies and younger professionals to be a part of the community and stick around.” Prior to joining Capital Innovators, Luing worked for Alumni Ventures in Chicago. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
What made you go into investing as opposed to being an entrepreneur? I grew up with an entrepreneurial mindset and up through college I was convinced I was going to be a startup founder (and maybe still will be when the time is right). I spent my summers in operational internship roles and worked at building my own businesses – flipping sneakers and building a try-before-you-buy watch e-commerce store (before Amazon came out with try-before-you-buy on their platform). As I plugged myself into accelerator programs and met with other entrepreneurs, I became more aware of the possibilities to work on the other side of the table as an investor, supporting entrepreneurs and providing the necessary capital to grow their companies.
Toward the end of college, I set a goal to launch my own accelerator for international startups looking to find product market fit in the U.S. With Covid-19 at its peak during graduation, this goal was unobtainable in the one-year timeline I had planned, but I was fortunate to have been selected into Alumni Ventures’ inaugural analyst program and the rest is history. About a year after graduation, I landed in my current role as Capital Innovators’ program director, which in some ways completed my goals of running an accelerator.
What’s your proudest accomplishment? I am most proud of the number and variety of investments I’ve been a part of (both in supporting and primary roles). In my previous role as an analyst at Alumni Ventures, I supported 15 completed investments ranging from early-stage consumer products to late stage fintech. In my current role as program director at Capital Innovators, I’ve led 18 early-stage investments for our accelerator program. Deal count is not synonymous with successful investments, though as these companies mature, I will have a stronger track record to point towards. Instead, I am proud of my deal count because each deal has furthered my understanding and experience in the industry.
One of the investments I felt most accomplished with was securing allocation in a $100 million oversubscribed Series C Midwest-based fintech company investment round that I sourced through my network and that was approved by the investment committee at my previous job after only a few months of starting as an analyst.
Where do you see yourself and your career in five years? I plan to raise a Capital Innovators fund as a general partner or venture partner in the next 18-24 months. With a three-year deployment, that would put me right at five years of continuing to build and invest as a St. Louis-based venture investor. At this point, some of my initial investments should see some liquidity/exits and my track record will begin to materialize.
Who are your biggest mentors? Naturally, my biggest mentor is currently Capital Innovators’ CEO Judy Sindecuse, who I interact with daily. She has given me the needed freedom to operate and is always there to provide wisdom and guidance through everyday business dealings. With that said, I wouldn’t have gotten to where I am without the guidance from many other mentors at different points in my development: the Estro brothers from one of my first professional internships at Estro Digital for getting me interested in the accelerator space; Professor Jon Eckhardt at UW-Madison for teaching me the foundations of accelerators; Keith Foster , a former VC turned operator, for providing advice as I jump started my career in venture; David Beazley from Alumni Ventures for taking a true interest in my career development early on and the many other people I’ve connected with along the way.
