Investor Connect - Episode 218 - Dan Conner of Ascend Venture Capital

On this episode, Hall is joined by Dan Conner of St. Louis-based Ascend Venture Capital. Before coming into investing, Dan worked as an engineer, primarily in the oil, biofuel, and wind energy industries. After getting his MBA, Dan ended up in the VC world, in the enterprise sector. According to Dan, he owes his success to 'putting in the legwork', researching thousands of companies to find the select few he likes. Dan talks about how the enterprise industry is evolving, how traction metrics are being looked at in earlier stages, and how corporate and strategic buyers are becoming more and more selective. Dan also explains his investment thesis, focusing on companies that are unique or approaching their space in a unique way, and provides some examples of the companies he's worked with. In addition, he discusses some of the challenges in the enterprise space, and some of the applications and sectors he thinks are particularly ripe with opportunity.