Origin Ventures

We had a phenomenal couple of days in the Park City area with executive teams, investors, and special guests. In order to enhance the learning & connecting...we surrounded the CXO Summits and our Annual Meeting with some amazing events. We wrapped up our CXO Summits - and kicked off our investor events - with a reception and dinner at Blue Sky Ranch. Our special guest was Catherine Raney Norman, the 4-time Olympic speed skater and Chair of the UT Committee for the Games. Catherine shared her Olympic experience, and an update on Salt Lake City's bid to host the winter games in 2030 or 2034. We returned to the Heber Valley the next morning for our annual meeting with investors, then headed outside for recreational activities - including golf, fly fishing, bobsledding at Utah Olympic Park and a high alpine hike at Guardsman Pass. Special thank you to the four presenting CEOs - Itamar Zur (Veho), Jennifer Henderson (Tilt), Rick Farnell (Tracer.AI) and Monte Zweben (ControlRooms.AI). We closed our week with another evening reception on Main St. in Park City. Ryan "Coach Rusty" Rustand created a Wasatch-inspired piece of golf art using his trademark style - by swinging a golf club to splatter the paint. After watching Coach Rusty do this on Instagram, Youtube, and Tiktok - it was amazing to see it in person. We auctioned the final piece and were pleased to make a nice donation to the First Tee of Utah program. We offer one more huge THANK YOU to the executives, investors, friends of our firm, and special guests who joined us. It was great to spend so much time together. cc Steve Miller Bruce Barron Brent Hill Jason Heltzer Alexander Meyer Scott Stern Prashant Shukla Jacquie Marshall Siegmund Carolina G. Angela Smith Linda Watchmaker

We are pleased to announce our investment in Torus, an energy storage and management company focused on building efficient, secure energy storage solutions. This $67M Series A financing included participation from our friends at EPIC Ventures, Cumming Capital, The Larry H. Miller Company, Zions Bank, Pelion Venture Partners, ICONIQ Capital, and Remarkable Ventures. Thrilled to be working with Nate Walkingshaw and Gilbert Lee on their category defining company designed to reduce energy costs, provide reliable and flexible backup power, and manage energy as a monetizable asset. Read more about why we invested here: https://lnkd.in/d5R6udJZ

Thrilled to be partnering with Stella Garber and the entire Hoop team as they build the to-do list that keeps itself up to date! Read more about why we invested here: https://lnkd.in/dPfB7zde

Scott Stern shares some insightful metaphors from the solar eclipse that are relevant to venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. Though this was from the last eclipse, these lessons still ring true today. https://lnkd.in/dWH5S_Ra

Today we are pleased to announce our investment in Torus, as it brings innovative energy storage solutions to market for residential and commercial customers in an increasingly electrified world powered by renewable energy. Congrats to Nate Walkingshaw Gilbert Lee and the entire Torus team on this milestone. This team has a bold vision and builds on Utah's legacy in the energy sector. https://lnkd.in/gpR5_-fV

Origin Ventures and Angela Smith puts on a top 3 Utah Tech Week event for with their pickleball tourney. I was blown away last year by how smoothly Angela makes it run and how much it brought our community together. Almost all the VCs in town came together to support this and tons of startup founders will be there as well! Currently, there's 30+ startups and 20+ VC firms that will be there with a bit of room for some additional teams! Still time to sign up! Thanks to Angela and Brent Hill from Origin also for being great partners of Utah Tech Week. Tech Week doesn't happen without the financial support of 10 key companies and funds like Origin! Register to join the tourney here: https://lnkd.in/gkFXJv4e

Looking to up your podcast game in 2024? Catch Origin Ventures Managing Partner and proud University of Michigan alum, Jason Heltzer, on MPods' latest episode. 🔊✨ Let us know what else you're listening to below ⬇

Our CFO and HR summit in Utah focused on how to calibrate the growth vs. efficiency knob, and generally how to do more with less. In addition to getting connected to other CFOs and HR leaders in the portfolio, the gang heard from a super experienced group of executives who have paved the roads that await our companies.

Huge THANK YOU to everyone who joined us for an extraordinary couple of days of learning and connecting.

Origin Ventures welcomed over 175 executives and investors to Utah for several days of peer-to-peer learning, mentorship, and networking - all set agains the beautiful backdrop of fall foliage 🍁 and the Wasatch Mountains. The week included several events: 🏕 Q3 company offsites for more than 15 companies 🏔 Four "CXO Summits" connecting functional leaders and special guests ⛸ A reception and dinner program with 90 executives and 75 investors 📈 Our annual meeting with LPs to review company & fund performance 🖼 A reception, dinner, and fundraiser with investors and friends [Part 1 of 4] The CEO Summit returned to River Bottoms Ranch outside Park City for the third consecutive year. The main topics for the day - determined by polling the CEOs in advance of our time together - included:  1) “Doing More With Less” - every company has moved toward efficient growth with an accelerated path to profitability 2) Evolving Go-to-Market Strategies - managing customer sales, retention, and expansion under a new set of market conditions 3) Culture in the Face of Change - maintaining high-performance culture and communicating transparently while adjusting the operating model We were pleased to be joined by several outstanding external speakers who provided their own perspective on the topics of the day. That group included: 🥕 Mike T. - CHRO at Albertson's; x YUM!, x Diageo 🚘 Adam DeWitt - former CEO and CFO of Grubhub 👟 Chris Hull - SVP at Rothy's; x Shinola, x Nike ⛷ Sophie Goldschmidt - CEO at U.S. Ski & Snowboard 🏦 Samir Desai - Managing Director at Needham & Co. ❤️ Robi Ganguly - co Founder & CEO of Apptentive (Alchemer) Highlight reel of some of the week's events: https://lnkd.in/gb8r-9Gw We will share additional insights from the other Summits - GTM, Builders, and Finance - over the next few days. THANK YOU to those of you who were able to join us this year for your transparency, engagement, and though leadership. We are already looking forward to doing it again in 2024! CC Jack Vines III Rick Farnell Taylor Smith Kevin Yip Tim 🚙 H. Jennifer Henderson Brett Barlow David Hassell Jim Morrisroe Nico Roberts Darrin Murriner Kirsten Moorefield Lonnie Mayne Mort Fertel Nick Bartel Monte Zweben Omar A. Talib Salman Habib Jason Owen Jason Stulberg Vijen Patel Prashant Shukla Alexander Meyer Jason Heltzer Scott Stern Bruce Barron Steve Miller Carolina G. Angela Smith Linda Watchmaker Brent Hill Jacquie Marshall Siegmund