What is your organization’s name? Keiretsu Forum

What is your mission and who does your organization serve? Our mission is “Great Association With Quality Deal Flow”.

What exciting trends are you seeing with startups in Washington right now? It is exciting times to be an angel investor in the Northwest. The west coast is the world’s leading innovation based economy. While we don’t monopolize global innovation of course, we do have the number one clusters in each of Information Technology, Internet, Life Sciences, Digital Content and perhaps Clean Tech.

This means as early stage investors we tend to see developing innovation themes before most parts of the world, and get to back companies early in these areas – companies that likely will be snapped up by the larger industry leaders that are also in Washington like Amazon, Google, Adobe, Microsoft, Facebook, Boeing, and many others.

Right now, we believe we are seeing the development of new or further opportunities in Cloud computing, further digitalization of products and services, the arrival of augmented reality and the 3D maker movement, and the coming of age of clean technologies. We also continue to see life sciences companies taking advantage of the unlocking of the genome. But these are just examples of many that our Keiretsu Forum angels on the West coast are considering everyday.

What do you hope to get out of partnering with WTIA on this first-ever First Look Forum in Bellingham? Keiretsu Forum is described as a conglomeration of individuals or small companies that are organized around private equity funding for mutual benefit. Keiretsu Forum believes that through a holistic approach that includes interlocking relationships with partners and key resources, they can offer an association that produces the highest quality deal-flow and investment opportunities. We hope our partnership with WTIA will bring more awareness with regards to deal flow and investors from Bellingham.

Do you have any advice for the First Look Forum competitors? Focus on as big an opportunity as you can imagine and create a realistic plan to go after it. Stay on time and connect with the audience in a meaningful way.

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@WTIA | #FirstLookForum | @natemcdonald | @k4northwest

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Written by: Nathan McDonald | Chairman | Keiretsu – Northwest Region

Nathan brings a unique entrepreneurial business and organizational development background developed during many years of hands-on, active leadership and operational experience. As one of the Northwest’s leading organizers of entrepreneurial and investor relations-focused media and funding events, he has facilitated scores of engagements and successfully promoted hundreds of privately financed high-growth companies.Nathan co-founded and currently is the Chairman for the Northwest Region of the Keiretsu Forum global angel investment group. He wrote the business plan and designed the organizational structure, which led to the initial license agreement with global Keiretsu Forum. He recruited the team, implemented policies and procedures, designed, and coordinated multifaceted events. As part of his overall regional growth strategy, he created and implemented controlled expansion activities in Seattle, Bellevue, Boise and Portland. Nathan’s leadership and personal networking skills combined to quickly build the region into the fastest growing angel investment group in the nation, adding over 350 investor members and facilitating $65 million in funding for 113 companies. In 2004, Nathan became Managing Director of Venture Velocity, a business growth consulting organization. He recruited a talent pool of executive-level consultants from among the most successful and fastest growing companies in the region. Nathan has been a moving force in building and shaping investor networks for two emerging fund managers including The University Funds and Pacific West Land. Nathan has dedicated much of his career to stimulating growth-stage capital investment including as lead organizer for the Northwest’s most successful venture funding conference, raising over $30 million for 15 growth companies. As Co-founder and Managing Director of the Investment Forum, he produced the highest quality educational programs, social events, and investment forums in the region in collaboration with more than thirty-five industry groups and hundreds of different sponsors. Nathan co-founded an industry leading showcase event and media piece, which attracted over 500 of the region’s most influential investors and CEO’s to recognize and celebrate their accomplishments. Nathan is a graduate of University of Washington Michael G. Foster Business School with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration & Finance with an emphasis in entrepreneurial leadership and venture finance. He has been a consistent supporter and volunteer for his alma mater, serving as a sponsor and judge for the UW Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Business Plan Competition for many years. Nathan and his wife Brianna live in the Wedgwood neighborhood in Seattle with their two young sons Evan and Wyatt.