Stories

Real founders. Real investors. Real results. 

Here’s what our community says.

CEO

Andy Reguskus

Sonic Innovations

The relationships develop through Kinect Capital‚ and Cooperative Venturing Network have proven invaluable, from the early stages of raising venture capital all the way through our public offering.

CEO

Brad Wright

Document Control

We raised $2 million in seed money from investors we met through Kinect Capital.

CEO

Pete Meldrum

Myriad Genetics

Our Kinect Capital Deal Maker Team reduced our 40 minute company presentation to a 10 minute investor overview presentation. Their help saved us thousands of dollars and weeks of work.

Co-Founder

George Sims

Sonic Innovations

In the early years of Sonics, the Kinect Capital programs helped us gauge investor interest, allowing us to accelerate our fund raising efforts.

CEO

John Pope

WellDog

The Kinect Capital Conference, Investors Choice, has been the key to our financing success.  Because of this conference, WellDog entered into serious discussions with four venture capital funds and several angel investors.  Within four months of presenting at Investors Choice, WellDog closed its $1.5M Series B round with Prospector Equity Capital — a great venture fund that we met at the conference.  If you’re looking for capital for great and growing companies, I highly recommend attending the Investors Choice Conference.

CTO

Jordon Woods

InnovASIC

Our thanks to you and the entire Kinect Capital team for an excellent conference. The mentoring sessions were a helpful and positive experience.

Marketing Manager

Ian Y. Kitajima

Nanopoint

A big MAHALO from all of us at NanoPOINT and Oceanit.  I think you saw and heard how your personal contributions and feedbacks made it directly into the presentation. That was the difference for Nanopoint. It was truly a team effort, and I appreciate your support.

CEO

Scott McKinley

Northface University

The process was more than helpful and yes, I am more than willing to be a “poster child” for Kinect Capital going forward.  There are several aspects of the relationship that we should capture before they are forgotten:

1.  Mike Levinthal’s role
2.  Mentor Team’s role in preparation
3.  Mentor Team’s ongoing involvement with Northface Univ. (e.g. Lora Lea Mock)
4.  Attendees at the conference that included Battery Ventures and others who expressed interest in us.
5.  Professional approach of Kinect Capital

CEO

Roger Falcione

MotorWeb

Congratulations on presenting such a professional and well-organized conference.  The entire experience has been tremendously positive and constructive.  As I may have mentioned to you before, despite my previous entrepreneurial success, this is my first exposure to the capital equity market.  Thanks to this experience, I now have a much more solid understanding of how venture capitalists think, what they look for in their portfolios, and how best to communicate our message.

I also want to tell you how much we appreciate our mentor team.  We strove to incorporate the insightful comments and constructive criticism we got from them into our presentation.  As a result, our story was very well received, both during the presentation and later in the break-out session.  I have already made initial contact with several attendees, and I look forward to following up with them.

President & CEO

Bill Hetherington

Carina Technology, Inc.

[Carina] raised about $ 1.4 million in the last 8 months (mainly through angel investment groups) but your (Kinect Capital) assistance in helping me focus the presentation was instrumental in that fund raising effort.

Investor Liaison

Susan K.

Now – 

My time with Kinect Capital has given me the amazing opportunity to meet and work with so many incredible industry professionals that each offer something unique and valuable to not only entrepreneurs, but also to interns and their peers. I particularly have enjoyed being a part of mentorship teams where I get to witness industry professionals of different backgrounds present their various perspectives to situations. It has been an incredible learning experience to not only listen in on such meetings, but also actively participate in them by providing my own opinions and suggestions.

Investor Liaison

Ty Yagi

Now – Exec. Dir. Sunrise Senior  Living

Every interview I have had since this internship, whether it was with a “tech” company or with a healthcare company, would always stop and ask about my unique experience working as an investor liaison for Kinect Capital. Confidently, I would boast about the unbelievable opportunity I had to be surrounded by individuals who I aspired to be, and to have the special opportunity to work beside them and to see them through the process of obtaining their life long goal of owning their own company. The employers were always impressed with the experience I gained.

Founder & CEO

Karmel Larson

Momni

Investors Choice [Kinect Capital Conference] provided a great overall value for our startup! The pitch mentoring was exceptional and the entire experience led to
several introductions and offers to meet with investors. The mentors were professional and generous.

President & CEO

Dale Lewis

Fortress Clothing

Thank you Brad, Adriana, Peter and all of the mentors, liaison coordinators and team. Great event, I hope I don’t “have to participate again” (because we get funded and Grow!!)

Founder

Vitaly Kirkpatrick

  

The experience was amazing! Mentors are amazing in giving the guidance. Attendees are amazing with connecting our startup with many others. Loved to learn from mentors, other startups, and all attendees. Thank you for allowing us to participate!

Founder & Board Chair

Annette MacIntyre

Majelco Medical

The best part was the pitch mentorship!

founder & CEO

Stacy Bamberg

Veristride

Thanks for a great mentoring experience!!!

director

Tom Lund

Tanner LLC

Adriana, Peter, and Brad all exceeded expectations big time!

president

Kent Thomas

Advanced CFO Solutions

Kinect Capital and its programs have been a great source for clients for my business and I routinely refer our clients to KinectCapital.org to help
them understand and get prepared for a financing transaction.

partner

Kent Bowman

Tanner LLC

I have been involved with the Institute for over 10 years, Kinect Capital is a great source for deal flow and provides a valuable service for our community.

founder

Reed Brown

Matchbin

Kinect Capital and Investors Choice were critical in the success of Matchbin.

ceo

Vicki Farrar

Catheter Connections

The mentoring and discipline of Investors Choice [Kinect Capital Conference] were integral to our success at raising capital.

partner

Kent Bowman

Tanner LLC

I have been involved with Kinect Capital for over 10 years. It is a great source for deal flow and provides a valuable service for our community.

managing partner

Greg Warnock

Mercato Partners

Both Investors Choice and Cooperative Venturing Network [Kinect Capital programs] have been a great source of deal flow.

Managing Partner

Mark Solon

TechStars

Congratulations on a great event. I look forward to participating in future events and to helping Kinect Capital.

Investor Liaison

Barry Youngfield

Now…

I want to thank you for having this opportunity (Kinect Capital internship program) available. I don’t know of any other internship out there that allows people the interaction with growing companies and the VC community.

SVP

John Williamson

Commercial Banking

Of the nine companies that presented last year, six have raised more than $7 million

CEO

Leif Elgethun

Retrolux

Retrolux has participated in multiple Kinect Capital programs over the past three years, including their Deal Forum, Pitch Coaching, and the Investors Choice Forum. We’ve found their programs very accessible to participate in and have found tremendous value through the intensive coaching sessions with experienced entrepreneurs, investors and community supporters as well as opportunities to practice selling our idea to investors in pitch practice sessions. It’s like an intensive boot camp for novice entrepreneurs looking to understand their business and how to raise money.

Mentor/Investor

Tatyana Gray

Medium

The pitching mentor ship that Kinect Capital provides to entrepreneurs for free is amazing. I have volunteered a few times as a mentor and believed tremendously in this program. There are gurus and coaches out there who charge big money for this kind of service to start founders.  And, for new investors or even people who don’t hit the threshold of accredited but want to get involved, finding an organization like Kinect Capital is an amazing opportunity.

Executive Director

Marcia Nelson

Texas Capital

I am so impressed by all the volunteers who give their time to help these amazing founders prepare to pitch in front of a live audience.

Co-Founder/Managing Dir.

Jolene Anderson

Vector Point Impact Partners

Always an honor to support entrepreneurs and participate with the amazing teams and the other judges on investor panel for Kinect Capital.

Investor

Nicholas Singleton

Old Main Ventures

Lots of impressive companies. This was a lot of fun to be a part of!

Ready to write your own story?

Applications are open. No cost, no connections required — just real mentorship and a path to capital.