Charlotte Angel Connection Episode 137: David Jones, General Partner with Bull City Venture Partners

Today we welcome David Jones, General Partner of Bull City Venture Partners to the podcast.  BCVP has a great reputation across NC and the southeast and they just finished raising their 3rd fund. Over the pandemic, David reached out to me twice to check in and see how I was doing – and I’m not an investor in the fund or a company they’ve invested in. In a recent conversation with David, it hit me how founder friendly he had to be based on my interactions with him.   I had also recently been having conversations with founders who seemed timid to ask their venture partners/investors questions about what they can/can’t do with company stock or how they should treat certain business situations that greatly impacted them.  As such, I reached back out to David to see if he would be willing to do a podcast discussing what it means to him when someone says a venture firm is founder friendly. Naturally, we start off the podcast learning more about David and how Bull City Venture Partners has developed over the years.  David was kind enough to discuss some aspects of their due diligence process and how it may differ from others.  And I think David’s background getting into VC and the path of Bull City over the years is such a great story and so beneficial for them. From there, our discussion turned into what meant to David when I said ‘founder friendly VC’.  I thought it was great that one of the first things he said was it didn’t mean they were easy on terms.  That’s such an important point to make when talking about being founder friendly but then he opened up about working with founders AFTER funding them and how that dictates what founder friendly can really be.  David was naturally honest and open about where they have been helpful but also in some places where they be more engaged with their founders. Hopefully listening to this podcast will help all the founders out there know that they investors want them to be successful and have seen other founders be successful in the past.  As such, they are oftentimes more than happy to engage in discussions about ways to maximize the growth of the business to the founder(s). If you have any questions, we are going to do a founder only ‘office hours’ in the coming weeks with David where only founders can join in a 60-minute discussion with David about aspects of their business they would like to get feedback on.  Please email me directly if you’d like to be included (william@portusadvisors.com).  If you’ve been on the podcast before, don’t worry.  You will automatically receive the invite.     William Bissett is the owner of and an Investment Advisor Representative of Portus Wealth Advisors, a Registered Investment Adviser. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Opinions expressed on this program do not necessarily reflect those of Portus Wealth Advisors. The topics discussed and opinions given are not intended to address the specific needs of any listener.   Portus Wealth Advisors does not offer legal or tax advice, listeners are encouraged to discuss their financial needs with the appropriate professional regarding your individual circumstance.  Investments described herein may be speculative and may involve a substantial risk of loss. Interests may be offered only to persons who qualify as accredited investors under applicable state and federal regulation or an eligible employee of the management company. There generally is no public market for the Interests. Prospective investors should particularly note that many factors affect performance, including changes in market conditions and interest rates, and other economic, political or financial developments. Past performance is not, and should not be construed as, indicative of future results.