The Maryland Venture Fund has made Parag Sheth its new director and chief marketing officer. Hiring Sheth completes the process of filling out the executive team for MVF after the state spun it off of the Department of Commerce and it joined the quasi-independent Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) a year ago.
"I've always been passionate about entrepreneurship and bringing them to new successes," Sheth told DC Inno in an interview. "There is so much potential in Maryland that we can bring out."
Sheth, an entrepreneur and investor, is joining MVF after almost six years working in international business development at Radius Worldwide. He's also a long-time friend and co-worker of MVF managing director Andy Jones.
"Andy and I go back a long way and we've always shared a focus on entrepreneurs and finding how to make them a success," Sheth said.
Their experience working with companies beyond the angel investing stage was one reason Sheth and Jones were both hired. TEDCO focused mainly on much earlier stage companies. The companies ready to scale, but not yet at the point of tapping into the huge, later stage investment funds, need a different set of skills, Sheth explained. Sheth has a lot of experience in that regard, and now TEDCO can offer that mix of early and late-stage expertise to its portfolio companies.
"There's a space beyond angel investors but before the bigger, later investments and there aren't a lot of investors [in the D.C. area] filling that space," Sheth said. "We can be where the traditional institutions aren't. We can build the ecosystem here by filling that gap."
Though MVF is known for investing in tech companies like cybersecurity startup Luminal, that doesn't necessarily mean there is one particular industry that will get more attention than others. Sheth said that the density of tech companies in Maryland makes it likely, that those are the startups MVF will invest in, but not for any other reason. Connecting all of the companies via MVF and its investments is the bigger goal.
"We're industry agnostic, we just want to find the kind of entrepreneurs who know how to succeed and help them do so," Sheth said. "Entrepreneurs need more than capital. They need to have the support of the greater community. "We will be making money for our investors and getting those entrepreneurs to take their startups to the next level."
