Summe: Midwest startup advantage is customer proximity, not cost savings
Chad Summe · Chad Summe and Mike Veith – Corridor of Commerce at eGateway Capital (EP.364) · Jan 25, 2024 · at 36:30
Chad Summe, partner at eGateway Capital, explains why coastal enterprise startups benefit from building operations in the Midwest.
0:00 / 0:21exact quote · 21.9s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“And I think it's way beyond cost benefits of not being on the coast. It's really more around being closer to your customer. So much of us industry sits right here in the middle of the country. And when you're a startup moving to growth stage on the coast, sometimes serving those customers as effectively as you need to, as you're getting on bigger and bigger enterprise accounts, just becomes more difficult.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Chad Summe
Summe: Capital in growth equity is commoditized compared to operator expertise
“In the words growth capital, too much emphasis has been put on capital. It's become somewhat of a commodity. Our interest on the other hand was to focus on the word growth. We thought there was a lack of operator expertise and true knowledge around growth”
Summe: Vertical farming startup 80 Acres is profitable at scale
“Take a company like 80 Acres. It's a vertical farm that is doing something that has never been done in the history of mankind. Producing food indoors, at scale, and actually making money.”
Summe: The US Midwest presents an undercapitalized investment arbitrage opportunity
“We think the Midwest is undercapitalized. We believe in that. We think there's an arbitrage opportunity as a lot of US industry sits here with not a lot of the capital.”
Summe: Liquidation preferences have returned to growth-stage deal structures
“We've seen structure return in the marketplace in the form of liquidation preferences.”