Building partnerships and investing strategically can be key in the growth of a business. However, for big corporations, and small start-ups, creating and managing a variety of partnerships can be challenging. Today's guest created his company to help ease that process.
On this episode we're sitting down with David Horowitz, founder and CEO of
Touchdown Ventures. Touchdown partners with leading corporations to manage their venture capital funds, and currently they partner with Kellogg T-Mobile, Amerisource Bergen, Olympus, and Erie Insurance, Masco and Colorcon just to name a few.
Prior to starting touchdown, David was founding partner and managing director at Comcast Ventures for nearly 15 years. There he focused on investments in digital media, advertising, technology, digital home education, and financial technology. David also helped start and was partner at Gencast Ventures, a seed stage venture capital fund affiliated with Comcast Ventures.
Prior to Comcast, David worked in investment banking at Bear Stearns. He started South Jersey Tech Collective and networking group of entrepreneurs and investors in South Jersey, and David is also the inventor of the board game
'Frequent Flyer', which we'll talk about later in the program.
Highlights:
- David's previous work, and introduction to Touchdown Ventures (3:10)
- Market change and transitioning into corporate venture capital (4:33)
- Benefits of corporate venture capital investing (6:08)
- Common mistakes corporations make with investments (7:19)
- Pros and cons of venture capital partnerships (9:11)
- Industries investing in corporate venture capital (11:12)
- What makes a company an ideal partner for Touchdown Ventures (12:53)
- How Touchdown Ventures' model works, and success examples (14:03)
- Effects of the current market on investing and venture capital business (15:35)
- The company's future goals and trajectory (17:45)
- David's board game 'Frequent Flyer' (18:42)
Links:
Feedback:
If you have questions about the show, or have a topic in mind you'd like discussed in future episodes, email our producer,
marion@lowerstreet.co.
What is Welcome to the Arena from ICR – Conversations with Today's Innovators & Business Leaders?
In the increasingly crowded and competitive corporate and financial ecosystem, it’s harder than ever for companies to break through the clutter and be heard. The media, investors, agenda-driven influencers, even customers and competitors, are defining your business story on their terms. Therefore, it is imperative that companies take control and proactively drive the conversation with stakeholders in an effort to build & maintain equity value.
In Welcome to the Arena from ICR, Co-Founder & CEO of ICR, Tom Ryan, interviews key business and financial players who influence the fate of public or aspiring public companies in the capital markets. As a former Wall Street Journal ranked sell-side equity analyst and the founder of one of the largest strategic communications firms in the world, Tom understands what it takes to navigate this complex environment.
This is a forum for CEOs, CFOs, institutional investors, sell-side analysts, financial journalists, private equity professionals and other financial community participants to share their stories and give advice in an open and candid conversation.
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