Providing a Dayton capital resource increases the likelihood that young but promising companies will remain in the region as they grow, he said.
“We want to communicate that we know capital access is important for our region’s startups,” said Mike McCann, chief operating officer of the center.
While Koorndyk and McCann say they see a need, they declined to go into detail about a timeline for creation of new capital support or where they are in the process.
“To be a thriving, full-service region that can support entrepreneurs in every way we can — the education, the resources — capital is a key component of it," McCann said. “We know that at some point, for Dayton to reach its potential, the ambition that we want, asset management here in this region is a key thing we need to have.”
The center has a three-year-old “Rotunda Fund,” managed by an investment committee and a fund manager. That fund does not require entrepreneurs to surrender a percentage of their companies. Instead, investments are paid back at a negotiated pace.
The center also has an EC “angels network,” a group of 50 high net-worth individuals willing to help promising new local companies.
In all, since 2017, center clients have raised more than $300 million from investors.
But McCann said the Rotunda Fund has completed its investment period and today is in a “maintenance phase.”
What he and others envision would complement what the angels network does.
“Active resident investors are a critical component of a thriving startup ecosystem,” he said.
The goal is to prepare business founders for angel and venture capital funding, while growing a Dayton-centric network of investors.
“I think that there is a need for that resource in the community, and it is something that I’m excited about,” said Andrea Kunk, president of Fairborn defense contractor Peerless Technologies — one of the area’s largest defense companies — and a board member of the Entrepreneurs Center.
Promising startups need capital, she said. “I think it’s important. The entrepreneur needs to have skin in the game, but also have access to potential investors for that company to be able to put their best foot forward and show their value prop.”
In 2005, Peerless was the first client company to graduate from the Entrepreneurs Center at a time when companies graduated from center help.
“That was very important to us as we charted our path back in the beginning and found our footing,” Kunk said.
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