Colleen Konetzke’s Post

Flexible work will be critical to solving skilled labor shortages - and it's more inclusive. Rahil Siddiqui and Wilya are changing the game in manufacturing. Proud to be a part of their journey! Ironspring Ventures Ty Findley

Who's serving and building for the massive middle? We've been watching the building materials distribution space closely - check out our latest Ironspring Ventures Blueprint on all things #DistributionTech 👇 from me, Ty Findley, and Carter Mayes! https://lnkd.in/gtYiiK2K

⚡ I've been excited to share this one for a bit: Ironspring Ventures welcomes Base Power Company to our portfolio. 🤠 "Base Power caters to the Texan spirit of independence – independence from the grid, independence from any single energy source, and independence from traditional business models. It’s fitting that a pioneering business model claims Texas as home." After being deep in utilities world it's incredibly exciting to see such a stellar team flipping the traditional business model on its head. Read more on why we invested below.

Last Thursday evening Alice, Maya, and I had the opportunity to gather women investing venture in industrial tech for a happy hour in San Francisco. We had a unique cross section of generalist and sector-focused, early and growth stage, and institutional and corporate funds represented, all investing to make legacy industry more productive, secure, and sustainable. As more eyes and dollars turn to transforming heavy industry, it was really special to see how strong this network already is at a cross section of two fields (venture and heavy industry) where traditionally there aren't as many women. Could not have pulled this together without Stifel Bank (Emily Gast and Kacey Connolly) whose support we are incredibly grateful for! If you're building in construction, manufacturing, transport + logistics, or energy, reach out. 👷♀️ ⚙ 🚛 💡

Childhood Colleen would be pretty freakin' stoked if she knew she not only got to meet Manu and play with Legos for work, but that her older self gets to play a part in growing businesses that are changing legacy industry for the better. So energized after an incredible week connecting innovators and big industry players - more to come! #gospursgo

To my Austin community - busy next Thursday night? Come hear us discuss why investing in climate tech is critical now and what it looks like. Especially excited to share what sustainability looks like in heavy industry. Austin has all the ingredients to support innovation in sustainability, and Sean Voigt and Liat Chobadi are leading the charge to centralize and get this community going!

First Manifest: The Future of Supply Chain & Logistics repping Ironspring Ventures was one for the books. It was an incredibly rich conference with so many founders, funders, and ecosystem members. The Ironspring portfolio was there in full force, always time well spent with Ryan Soskin (GoodShip), Jaime Tabachnik (Solvento), Bill Catania (OneRail), Matt Silver (Cargado)    Other highlights for me included:   🎤 Kicking off the conference with the Supply Chain Stage put on by Marlon Ramirez and Mirja Nissen. They did an excellent job showcasing innovators in the space. Since Manifest was my first Vegas conference, SCS was much appreciated quality time well spent in a smaller group to get started.   💜 Co-hosting dinner with Natan Reddy (25madison) and Brian Litvak (Ibex Investors) for about 20 founders, VCs, and corporate executives   🚛 Record turnout at our annual Mixin' at Manifest event with Fontinalis Partners, Schematic Ventures, Dynamo Ventures, Prologis, and SVB   ⛳ The Ladies Who Logistic event - thank you Tori Deems and Lucy Sondland and Prologis for putting it on! It was an awesome chance to step away from the conference and connect with other women, and I know Honour Masters and I had a blast tearing up TopGolf (sort of)

Stephanie Volk and I were discussing our first year (and change) at Ironspring Ventures, and I had some honest reflections: The best parts of the job are the people, as trite as that is. I'm very grateful for a team who is invested in my success - Stephanie Volk, Ty Findley, Adam Bridgman, Peter J. Holt, Dave Perretz, and Natan Reddy who's remained a close friend. Also very thankful for our portfolio companies that let me get my hands dirty in supporting them, a few in particular: Jack Carrere and McKay Johnson at Prokeep, Josh Levy at Document Crunch, Rohan Puri at Stable Auto, and Patrick Hogan at Handle.com. They continue to inspire me with what and how they're building every day. Of all the lessons and takeaways bouncing around in my head these are 3 of the loudest: 📐 Have an angle: Sector focus and specialization will only be more important as venture becomes increasingly competitive. Having a pointy point of view is important - shout out to Suzanne Muchin and her magical Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management class Selling Yourself and Your Ideas. (I struggled with that homework assignment then, but its wisdom has only been revealed to me over time). I had the privilege of having an Emerging Venture Capitalists Association (EVCA) dinner with Bill Gurley here in Austin a couple of months back where he explained "you earn the right to be a generalist in VC" and that's stuck with me ever since. I'm proud to be at a sector-focused fund. 🎡 Everything is a flywheel: Building a network and sourcing deals in venture is a flywheel. It takes time to build and it's built one conversation, one deal sent, one connection made at a time. Software sales are also a flywheel. Delighted customers drive growth. Investing at the stages we do, we're sometimes helping our portfolio get that flywheel going. It's a special and inflective period to support a startup. Breaking into venture is a flywheel. It takes a lot of conversations and connections to find a way in. A year in, I feel like I'm standing on one small mountain and looking up at another mountain in front of me. In a day I may talk to a mentee eager to break into venture and briefly feel wise, then later talk to an experienced investor and am reminded of how much I have to learn. I wouldn't be here or have the chance to learn if it weren't for the folks that picked up the phone or answered cold emails - you know who you are 💜 📨 Send the email: Reach out, send the email, add the person on LinkedIn (with a thoughtful, pointed note of course). You never know where your next deal, next hire, or next idea is going to come from. Don't get in your own way. You know something about something. Get out there, try new things, join a new community. I feel very lucky to have hobbies that sometimes intersect with work. A big shout out to ATX Cyclists in Tech🚲 I'm fortunate to know master community builder Zuzana Sekerova. She's creating real magic in several communities here in Austin.

🎆 Big year coming up, very pumped for what's ahead - especially around how energy production and use is rapidly changing. So much to look forward to and you can hear about it from our founders below ⬇ https://lnkd.in/gY2-gyiw