Models first, partners last
Our models read the filings, the public record, and licensed datasets before anyone here forms an opinion. Partners spend their time on what survives that pass, not on sorting the inbox.
About us
A diligence firm, not a deal board.
We assess early-stage companies for the investors who have to defend the decision, and we read every venture that comes to us before anyone else sees it. The partners here have spent more than fifty years between them on both sides of the venture table: starting companies, funding them, running the research, and teaching the people who will do it next.
How we work
What we hold ourselves to.
Three commitments that decide what a brief from us contains and who ever sees it.
Sourced, or it does not ship
Every claim in a brief cites the document it came from, and anything we could not establish is written down as unknown rather than left out.
No public deal board
What we forward goes to a defined group of funds, family offices, and strategic investors. Founders pay nothing to apply, and nobody pays for an introduction.
Our team
The people behind the work.
Four people. Every submission is read by one of them.
Daniel Sem, PhD
Venture & Investor Relations
Runs our investor relationships and the venture-formation side of the work, after twenty-five years spent building biotech companies and the funds that back them.
- President, Walsh Ventures
- Exec. Director, Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Walsh College
- President, CU Ventures
- Managing Partner, Talents Fund
- PhD Biochemistry, UW–Madison
- MBA, Marquette
- Wisconsin Bar
Dr. Michael Litman, PhD
Technology & Intelligence Systems
Owns the models and the research systems behind every brief. Nearly two decades of graduate-level teaching and applied research, and writing software since 2005.
- Founder, AI & Quantum Innovation Lab, Concordia University Wisconsin
- Professor and Chair of Computer Science
- Advisory Board Chair, Quantum Computing, OSR Applied Research
- MIT Post-Graduate, Machine Learning Software Development
Nick O'Brien
Strategy & Partnerships
Builds the distribution side: the family offices, funds, and strategic investors a brief actually reaches once it clears review.
- Director, Impact Partners
- Co-Founder, Families > Funds > Founders (F3)
- Family-office and impact-investing networks
Logan Montgomery
Software Development
Builds and maintains the platform that founders submit through and investors read in.
- Computer Science Scholars program, Concordia University Wisconsin
- Master's candidate
Contact
Talk to us.
Investors, press, and partnerships reach us at the address below. Founders should apply through an open portal — it is the only route that puts a venture in front of a partner.