When Chris Rizik goes to the Michigan Growth Capital Symposium, he doesn't spend much time watching presentation. The longtime Ann Arbor-based VC and CEO of the
Renaissance Venture Capital Fund, a fund of funds that invests in smaller venture capital firms, ends up spending most of the conference networking with people who are eager to bend his ear.
"It's a great opportunity to do that (network with people who are hard to get ahold of)," Rizik says. "I spend about three quarters of my time in the hallway, not in the sessions."
The
Michigan Growth Capital Symposium has been helping make these connections for a little more than 30 years. The two-day conference annually held in Ann Arbor, May 21-22, is widely regarded as one of the best places for high-level networking in the start-up and investment worlds in the Midwest.
This year's symposium will feature presentations from 40 of the Midwest's top high-growth companies and representatives from 65 investment firms. Overall attendance is expects to exceed 400 people, including entrepreneurs, angel investors and venture capitalists. Start-ups that have pitched at the Michigan growth Capital Symposium have raised in excess of $1 billion in seed capital over the years.
"You get a concentration of interesting people in that place," Rizik says. "You have people in the audience whom they (entrepreneurs) would have a hard time getting a meeting with. That's valuable."
Source: Chris Rizik, CEO of the Renaissance Venture Capital Fund
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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