Fund Facts: Doug Neal, eLab Ventures

On this episode of Fund Facts—a video series focused on venture capitalists, angel investors and other funders critical to Michigan’s entrepreneurial ecosystem—we connect with Doug Neal, managing director of eLab Ventures.

With offices in Ann Arbor and Silicon Valley, eLab Ventures is an early-stage venture fund that focuses on technology startups, primarily those in the seed stage. The eLab team has more than 125 years of combined experience as entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and operating executives. When it comes to investing, eLab looks for disruptive technology companies in the artificial intelligence, big data and cloud computing, security and IOT sectors.

In this video, Doug sits down with the MEDC to discuss how entrepreneurs and startups can attract investors and how companies can make thoughtful connections in a virtual setting, among other key takeaways. Some of these include:

• Companies looking to attract attention from investors should first make sure they understand the stage of funding the investor supports as well as what kind of technology they invest in. From there, Doug recommends reaching out through a referral or trusted connection.
• eLab has invested in several companies that have also received MEDC-funded resources, including Sight Machine and Strata Oncology.
  
  • Founded in 2011, Sight Machine is an Industry 4.0 technology company with products that are designed to visualize the manufacturing process, delivering efficient, high-quality and sustainable outcomes.
  • Located in Ann Arbor, Strata Oncology is a genomic testing company committed to accelerating the impact of precision medicine for cancer patients.
• eLab is bullish on entrepreneurship in Michigan because of the tremendous growth the state has seen over the last decade in the entrepreneurial and venture capital community. Currently, Michigan has more than $4.6 billion of capital under management.
• Despite the pandemic, there is still a great deal of activity happening for investors and a lot of startups looking to secure capital. The best way for a company to engage with the venture capital community is through LinkedIn and thoughtful connections.

If you have a high-tech startup idea you’d like to explore further and don’t know where to start, contact the Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s Entrepreneurship & Innovation Initiative at 888-522-0103 or visit https://www.michiganbusiness.org/entrepreneurship.

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