Idea Fund of La Crosse

"Our real role is to come in early, take the risk, support the entrepreneurs in the earliest stage, and help them get to the point where, if they need the money, it’ll be available from a larger, later stage investor,” said Jonathon Horne, Idea Fund’s managing director. Check out one of Innovation Iowa's latest articles featuring Idea Fund of La Crosse's Fund II investing in the Midwest and in our first Iowa-based company IdRamp: https://lnkd.in/gqb3bXd4

Introducing our Vice President at Idea Fund of La Crosse, Garrett Lauderdale! Garrett has been with Idea Fund for over a year with the close of our second fund. He focuses on deal flow and works closely with our incoming portfolio companies. Garrett previously worked in the Twin Cities at Strategic Education Inc.’s venture capital fund SEI Ventures. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and an MBA at Capella University. He lives in Minnesota with his wife and two boys. Though a Wisconsin native, Garrett has lived in Minnesota the past 10 years but is still a Milwaukee Bucks fan. A few more fun facts about Garrett - he worked as a tour guide on a paddlewheel boat on the Mississippi River (LA Crosse Queen Cruises), loves ping pong and dominates at skee ball. Interested in learning more about Idea Fund? Head to our website below: www.ideafundvc.com

We are so excited to welcome Roy to our portfolio! The company recently closed a $2mm seed round led by Idea Fund of La Crosse. Congratulations to Cale Johnston and his team on this funding! Roy's platform allows fans to make payments to support college athletes, empowering athletes to capitalize on their NIL (name, image, and likeness) potential while fostering deeper loyalty to their teams. This new funding will be used to accelerate Roy’s development, expand its offerings, and strengthen fan engagement across college sports. For more information and the full press release, follow the link below:

Let's put some faces to the name! Introducing our Managing Director Jonathon Horne. Jon is Idea Fund's Managing Director and cofounded it back in 2017. Before moving home to Wisconsin, Jon worked in investment banking for J.P. Morgan at its New York headquarters. He graduated with a Bachelor's degree from Lawrence University, and an MBA and JD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also serves as a Director for Marine Credit Union, and he is passionate about expanding economic opportunities to all members of our society. Jon lives in his hometown of La Crosse, WI, with his wife Kylie and their son James. They love spending time outside, from the driftless area around La Crosse to northern WI. They enjoy biking, skiing, and all of Wisconsin's seasons. And Jon appreciates both kinds of music, country and western. Interested in touch with us? Send us a note here: https://lnkd.in/gmkdmit6

We are so excited to welcome OfferingTree to our portfolio! The company recently raised over $2 million in venture capital funding led by Idea Fund of La Crosse. Big congratulations to Eddie Arpin and his team on the raise! OfferingTree offers a user-friendly platform that caters to boutique fitness and wellness studios in addition to solo practitioners who need a simple way to manage and grow their businesses. For more information and the full press release, follow the link below: https://lnkd.in/gvhMhaDh

Founders and investors, you're invited! Join us at Twin Cities Startup Week (TCSW) next week, Tuesday, September 17, from 5-7pm for a sponsored happy hour by Idea Fund of La Crosse and local portfolio companies DropCap Inc., OfferingTree, Roy, and Lumberjack Technologies! Enjoy complimentary apps and drinks on us at Luna and the Bear. To save a spot for this event, take a minute to fill out this registration form: https://lnkd.in/gTxqDazT. Special thanks to local founders Lindsay Jones, Eddie Arpin, Cale Johnston, Jack Jorgensen for being part of this event! Idea Fund of La Crosse is also hosting a session as part of startup week on Wednesday, September 18 at 2:30pm, called "Raising Your First VC Round." We hope to see you at one of our events next week! For more information on our event and others throughout the week, head here: https://lnkd.in/gYPE7yST

"Headquartered in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Aaniie is the only Northern Wisconsin-based company to make Inc.’s list and is ranked 5th overall for Wisconsin-based companies recognized." Congratulations to Scott Zielski and the entire Aaniie (Smartcare Software) team for making Inc. Magazine's fast-growing private companies list! Proud of this team and their accomplishment. Keep doing great things, Aaniie (Smartcare Software)!

Look at these smiling CEOs! Last week we treated our portfolio CEOs to a perfect weather day out on the Mississippi River. Meeting up to enjoy nature and get to know each other in a more casual environment was a real joy for them all. Our goal is to create more community for our CEOs as the journey can feel a bit isolating. We couldn't have asked for a better day and ride from Captain Ellis. Thanks for joining the Idea Fund team, Mike Vesey, Taralinda Willis, Lindsay Jones, Jack Jorgensen, and Alan Eber! Looking forward to the next one!

Hello LinkedIn network! 👋 It’s been a minute, and we’d like to re-introduce ourselves and what we do here at Idea Fund of La Crosse! As a venture capital firm based in La Crosse, WI, we know great ideas are not limited to Silicon Valley. We invest in pre-revenue and very early-stage revenue startups in the Upper Midwest – predominately Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. We take risk, and we invest with conviction. We do this because we believe founders in our part of the country are too often overlooked and underestimated. We’ve taken lessons from the national venture and investment leaders and developed an investment strategy designed to succeed in the unique conditions founders navigate in our region. Our Fund I closed in 2017 and was invested 100% into Wisconsin. We were very fortunate to invest in an exceptional group of 11 companies and founders. Even in the tough market, their strong performance allowed us to recently launch our Fund II with over $30mm in capital commitments. We’ve taken the learnings from Fund I and are scaling the strategy to include Minnesota and Iowa, in addition to Wisconsin. See more on this exciting announcement below! We are looking forward to expanding our investment network as well as meeting new founders throughout the added states within our geographic focus. As a founder, it’s just as important for you to get to know your investor as it is for your investor to diligence you. We want to use Linkedin to share more about who we are, how we invest and why we feel so fortunate to do what we do. If you want to connect with us or learn more about Idea Fund, please visit our website (ideafundvc.com) and keep following us here on LinkedIn. Great ideas live here in the Upper Midwest! And most importantly, great founders do too. We can't wait to share more with you soon! The Idea Fund Team