Last week we took our 3rd swing at the Club M25 Summit, and although the other two were great — 2.0 was definitely our best yet.
From a numbers perspective, the event was definitely a success. We had ~60 founders from 37 M25-backed startups, representing 9 different Midwestern states participate. We also had 50+ investors attend the Club M25 Investor Happy Hour (exclusive to them and our companies) to kick off the summit. Possibly the most important stat, which is also a new one we’re tracking for summits going forward, is that M25 facilitated 84 investor-startup one-on-one meetings around the summit. Knowing many more were scheduled outside of us coordinating them, we couldn’t be more excited at the thought that ~100 meetings happened over the course of a few days around the summit.
With happy hour and a Founder Dinner Thursday evening, we got off to an early start Friday morning…
There was coffee.
There were bagels.
There was swag.
Not only swag, but what I’m proud to call the first Club M25 SwagSwap™. Proud mostly because I’m pretty sure I (Mike) came up with it.
Since we had a great ice breaker (or possibly a few) the night before, we thought it might be cool to skip the traditional ice breaker the next morning and just have everyone bring some swag, trade/barter/haggle, and rep each other properly in each of their own cities. Our t-shirt collections have never been stronger, water bottle games are on point, and we discovered salad shakers are a thing. Actually an amazing thing. That all being said, the man bearing hippos is who really stole the show.
The rest of the day was full of learning from some out of town guests and founders helping founders.
HUGE thanks to our friends Jonathan Hsu @ Social Capital and Jamison Hill @ Bain Capital Ventures for coming in from out of town to pour into our founders.
And an equally HUGE thanks to the founders who stepped up to lead breakout sessions around product/tech, sales, and fundraising.
Founders helping founders is definitely a beautiful thing, but everyone knows that all work and no play makes founders… well… want to play.
After ‘concluding the work day’ with the Founder Round Table — we bounced out to Whirlyball (bumper cars + polo + lacrosse for the unfamiliar) for more good times and healthy competition. (Congrats team Mo’ Money)
As I’ve mentioned in my previous posts (1.0 & 1.5) about M25’s approach to adding value to startups, we genuinely get excited about creating meaningful value add for Club M25. The Club M25 Summits are just one way that M25 aims to do this. Whether you’re a founder looking to raise capital from us or another investor, it’s by far in your best interest to partner with someone who’s both excited about and has “reference-able work” of finding meaningful ways to add value to your vision.
About the Author
M25 is one of the most active venture capital firms focused solely on early-stage investments in the Midwest. Their objective, analytical approach has helped support their thesis and craft what is known as an ‘index fund of Midwest startups.’ M25 has already invested in over fifty companies since their inception in 2015, and continues to invest in over twenty companies each year. Their collaborative, forward-thinking style and diverse array of investments across industries and business models throughout the region has quickly established them as a key node in the Midwest startup ecosystem.
Mike Asem is a director of M25 Group. Mike is a proud alum of Purdue University, where he championed The Anvil coworking space and incubator, led business development for a nanotech startup, and mentored and worked with startups as a director of the Purdue Foundry.
Twitter: @M25Group
About Midwest Startups
Midwest Startups is the best resource for all things startups and tech in the Midwest. Create one profile to access job opportunities at several dozen venture-backed tech startups in the Midwest. Developed by M25 — one of the most active early-stage investors across the region — to create a hub for aspiring and experienced talent to easily access the fastest-growing companies where they want to work.
Twitter: @MidwestStartups
