01Team
The people making the calls.
A managing partner, an investment committee, an advisory board, and a nonprofit accelerator partner that provides deal flow.
02Managing partner
Luke Erickson
Managing Partner
Luke Erickson is the founder and executive director of Startup Ventura, a 501(c)(3) accelerator in Ventura County, California. He grew up in Hudson, Wisconsin, and studied business management at the University of Utah. Before Startup Ventura he worked in enterprise sales and business development. He is writing Never Exit: A Venture Thesis for Ventura County.
03Investment committee
Members
The investment committee is being formed. Members are announced when the fund opens.
How the committee decides
- Members
- Three to five
- Vote rule
- Majority of the committee
- Recusal
- A member with an interest in a company does not vote on it
- Meeting cadence
- Monthly, and as investments require
04Advisory board
05Deal-flow partner
Startup Ventura is the fund's deal-flow partner. It works with the fund's management company to provide deal flow: it trains the county's founders and brings the companies it graduates to the fund. VCIF Management, LLC is the fund's general partner and manages its capital; the fund publishes a report every quarter on the jobs portfolio companies create in the county, and Startup Ventura's board oversees its part of the work.
A share of the fund's upside is intended to go to Startup Ventura, so the accelerator can run on fund returns instead of grants.
06Conflicts of interest
When a company comes through Startup Ventura's program or a committee member has an interest in it, that member discloses the interest, leaves the discussion and does not vote. The managing partner records each recusal, and the quarterly report notes any investment made with one.