A group of seasoned Twin Cities startup veterans with backgrounds in fundraising, investing, marketing, mentorship and more have teamed up to launch a new venture capital firm called Bread and Butter Ventures.
The firm's founders are Brett Brohl, Mary Grove and Stephanie Rich. Brohl is the managing director of the St. Paul-based Techstars Farm to Fork ag-tech accelerator. Rich is Farm to Fork's entrepreneur in residence and the founder of local tech news site Starting Up North. The site officially ceased operations Thursday morning so Rich could focus her efforts on Bread and Butter.
"I'm beyond thrilled by the opportunity," Rich told Minne Inno. "I've had so much fun working with Brett and Mary. I'm excited to build this with them. I think we can do something special."
Grove is a former Google executive. Around two years ago, she moved to Minnesota to become a partner in Revolution and make investments from the firm's Rise of the Rest Seed Fund. During her time with Revolution, Grove led 25 investments for the firm in a number of sectors but developed a special interest in health care and enterprise SaaS software.
"By bringing us all together, we can do more and improve our results."
Grove said she is grateful for her time working with Rise of the Rest, especially because it helped her realized that she loved working with early-stage founders.
"As I contemplated my next chapter, it made sense to go all-in on the ecosystem here," she said. "Minnesota is something I'm deeply convicted in. By working here, we have the opportunity to re-galvanize more resources and bring the best of Minnesota to the world and the best of the world to Minnesota."
Bread and Butter is the evolution of The Syndicate Fund, a venture capital group founded by Brohl around four years ago.
"It wasn't that we needed to change, but that we had an opportunity," he said. "The three of us have very different backgrounds and we all look at deals differently. By bringing us all together, we can do more and improve our results."
The Syndicate Fund was about halfway through its second fund when it converted to Bread and Butter Ventures. Despite the change, Brohl said the firm first is prepared to continue investing out of this fund immediately. All Syndicate Fund portfolio companies will also be brought over to Bread and Butter.
Bread and Butter's name is a nod to its location. Minnesota has been known by some as the "Bread and Butter" state since the early 20th century. The firm's founders say that it also reflects their investing philosophy.
"This means food, enterprise SaaS and health care – some of Minnesota's strengths," Grove said. "But more than that, we want to focus on how we feed each other and how we take care of each other. That's our focus."
Bread and Butter will be investing in businesses both in Minnesota and across the globe.
"We want to be very accessible to the community. That's how we want to differentiate ourselves."
Founders of color have historically been overlooked and underfunded in the world of venture capital. It's a problem that has plagued the industry for years, but discussions of inequality have been recently renewed in the aftermath of George Floyd's death.
Bread and Butter's founders say that this issue has been at the front of their minds and they're developing specific initiatives to combat this issue.
"We fundamentally believe that good investment strategy includes diversity," Rich said. "It's incredibly important. Anyone that's including it as an afterthought isn't doing it right."
"Diversity is not about charity," Brohl added. "Our job as a fund is to invest in the best founders and provide returns. Everything out there says diverse portfolios out-perform those that aren't diverse. So diversity is an integral part of this fund."
Brohl and Grove will be general partners at Bread and Butter while Rich will serve as head of platform. In this role, Rich will focus on the firm's activities outside of investment, including ways to build the ecosystem and support entrepreneurs.
"We're doing a lot of discovery right now," Rich said. "We're looking at these companies, learning where they are and what they need. What are good and bad practices? After that, we'll be able to share more about longer-term strategies."
For now, Bread and Butter knows that it wants to commit to certain actions around transparency. The firm will publish data about its investments, recruit diverse speakers and provide hands-on training to help portfolio companies build inclusive teams.
"We fundamentally believe that good investment strategy includes diversity."
Founders also say that any panel they participate in must be diverse, and if it's not, they'll help it change. In time, it also plans to bring on limited partners from diverse backgrounds.
Bread and Butter is wasting no time in putting its investment power to work. Just a few hours after making its official debut, the firm was already hearing pitches from founders.
"We want entrepreneurs to find us, reach us and get time with us," Grove said. "We want to be very accessible to the community. That's how we want to differentiate ourselves."
"We want to go in and have an impact," Brohl added. "That's our goal. We want to be the best venture capital firm out there."
