iSelect is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in companies that are addressing critical global issues, in large markets, and with financially attractive business models, with a focus on agriculture, healthcare, B2B software, and resource efficiency.
The American entrepreneur is the single most effective wealth producer the world has ever known. American entrepreneurs solve the world’s big problems and generate tremendous profits doing so.
Want affordable healthcare? Support an entrepreneur who’s working on that problem. Want to improve education? An entrepreneur is out there making that happen. Want to create jobs? Look to entrepreneurs and the companies they create. In fact, over the last 50 years, nearly all new net job growth in this country has come from companies that are less than five years old.
The resilience of our global economy comes from customers eager for better answers, entrepreneurs bold enough to think differently, and investors willing to fund new ventures.
To this end, iSelect is supporting disruptive emerging technologies that can substantially change markets, tapping the enormous potential of agtech, food revolution, and healthcare innovation and offering access to pre-IPO/ pre-exit companies. We do this through a carefully designed process that incorporates three main pillars:
Diversification: Smart investors know if they invest in just one venture they will lose—but investing in a diversified portfolio of 20, 30, or more ventures achieves annual compounded returns greater than 20%. Research and fund performance represented by the Kauffman Foundation, Cambridge Associates, and 500 Startups all reach the same conclusion.
Modern portfolio theory teaches us that, by investing in more than one stock, an investor can reap the benefits of diversification—chief among them, a reduction in the riskiness of the portfolio. iSelect sources and researches investment opportunities so its investors don’t have to.
Diligence: Kauffman Foundation data clearly shows that success also requires extensive diligence and industry expertise. Further, the assets underpinning the venture must still be fundamentally valuable and the company’s progress monitored diligently. iSelect performs more than 120 hours of diligence on each deal it invests in, leveraging expert Selection Committees in our investment review and actively monitoring company progress post-investment.
National Scope: Silicon Valley cultivates software, IT, media, and entertainment ventures. But what about everything else? How can investors tap into the rest of America’s unique innovation engine? After all, not every successful company is built in Silicon Valley. iSelect brings accredited and institutional investment to early-stage ventures in Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, St. Louis, and many more because that’s where we’re finding the best opportunities. We invest outside Silicon Valley because these locations offer cheaper operating costs, proximity to customers, excellent talent, rational valuations, and strong exit opportunities.
